PARIS (TASS): The French Foreign Ministry condemned the shelling in the Idlib zone and called for an immediate de-escalation of the situation. This was announced to reporters on Tuesday by an official representative of the country’s foreign ministry, commenting on the situation in Syria.
“France condemns rene-wed attacks in the Idlib zo-ne, especially aimed at hu-manitarian infrastructure,” he said. The French diplomat argued that the ongoing attacks by the Syrian regi-me “are aimed at civilian infrastructure and are being carried out in violation of international humanitarian law.”
According to the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Paris “calls for an immediate de-escalation in Idlib, ensuring the protection of civilians and personnel of humanitarian organizations in accordance with international legal norms.”
The day before, Rear Admiral Oleg Zhuravlev, deputy head of the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria, said that one Syrian soldier was wounded as a result of sniper fire near the village of Kuljok in Idlib province. According to the Russian military, over the past day in the Idlib de-escalation zone, one shelling was recorded from the positions of the terrorist group Jebhat al-Nusra banned in the Russian Federation.
Alexander Lavrentyev, the special envoy of the President of the Russian Federation for the Syrian settlement, said in Decem-ber that the guarantor countries of the Astana process have managed to significantly reduce the level of tension in Syria over the past six months and prevent provocations in the de-escalation zone in Idlib. He noted that it was possible to achieve success “in preventing any provocative actions on the line of contact in the Idlib de-escalation zone, the number of provocations has decreased by more than 10 times.”
An armed conflict has continued in Syria since 2011. Negotiations in Nur-Sultan have been going on since 2017, and in January 2018, the congress of the Syrian national dialogue was held in Sochi, which was the first attempt since the beginning of the conflict to gather a wide range of participants in one negotiating platform. The main result of the congress was the decision to create a constitutional committee, which operates in Geneva and whose main task is to prepare constitutional reform. The guarantors of the Astana process for the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Syria are Russia, Turkey and Iran.
The post Paris calls for de-escalation in Idlib appeared first on The Frontier Post.
