BEIRUT, September 30. /TASS/. Wednesday’s Russia-Turkey summit will lead to a number of steps aimed at stabilizing the situation in northern Syria, Lebanese military strategy expert General Charles Abi Nader told TASS.

According to him, the need to resolve the situation in Syria’s Idlib province, most of which is still controlled by anti-government forces, has come to the fore after Russia brokered a new local ceasefire in the south of Syria. The analyst believes that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will have to go through with the process of disarming members of extremist groups in Idlib in accordance with the 2017 agreement on the creation of de-escalation zones. Besides, in the expert's words, "Turkey will withdraw the forces that it controls from the line of contact near the M-4 highway, which is actually in line with Damascus' interests."

Charles Abi Nader was confident that following the pullout of US troops from Afghanistan, relations between Syria and other Arab countries would inevitably start to normalize. In this regard, he particularly mentioned the restoration of transport links between Syria and Jordan. As for Turkey, who used to be Syria's main trading partner, it is also interested in gradually re-establishing economic ties, the analyst noted. "President Erdogan will benefit from friendly relations with Russia in terms of developing an acceptable compromise with Damascus," Charles Abi Nader emphasized.