New military offensive in Syria 'unacceptable,' says Lavrov

Photo: AA/File

Russia considers a new military offensive by Türkiye in Syira's north "unacceptable," its Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today (August 23).

"The important part is to prevent some kind of new military action and reach agreements via diplomatic channels based on those political principles that have already existed in relations between Syria and Turkey," Lavrov remarked during a joint press conference with his counterpart from Syria, Faisal Mekdad, Russia's state-run TASS agency reported.

When asked about Russia's role as a mediator between Damascus and Ankara, Lavrov noted that Moscow has been involved in normalizing the two countries' relations through the Astana format, the series of trilateral talks between Russia, Türkiye and Iran.

Lavrov further said that Russia supports Syria's position that it "recognizes a terrorist threat in the country's north and is ready to be fully responsible for its sovereign territory."

Since late May, Türkiye has expressed its intentions to carry out a new military offensive in the Kurdish-controlled areas in Syria's north.

After his meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Sochi on August 5, President Erdoğan implied that Russia would give the green light for a new operation if Ankara reconciled with Damascus.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on August 12 revealed that he had a meeting with his Syrian counterpart in October during a Non-Aligned Movement summit in Belgrade in what was the highest-level contact between Ankara and Damascus in a decade.

Erdoğan said on Friday that Türkiye's aim in Syria is not to topple the Assad administration, and diplomatic relations have been going on between the two countries.

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