Russia warns of resuming fighting east of Euphrates

The Russian deputy foreign minister, Oleg Syromolotov, warned on Friday of resumed fighting east of the Euphrates, also alerting that this might revive Daesh.

In an interview, Syromolotov asserted that “in order to neutralise this threat, and to prevent the recreation of the ISIS terrorist potential in general, we need, first of all, to prevent the resumption of hostilities in the region, and to help restore the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic

“In fact,” he continued, “the Russia-Turkey Memorandum of October 22, 2019 is aimed at this; and its implementation is going stage by stage.”

He added “we are talking about several hundred ISIS [Daesh] members that escaped from captivity. This is an issue of serious concern, because these ISIS militants could facilitate the recreation of the organisation’s armed potential.”

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The Russian official continued “essentially, this became possible because of a general escalation of tensions around the Euphrates, and due to illegal foreign military presence in Syria.” He did not mention whether he refers to the Turkish or American presence.

On 18 November, Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğu, criticised Russia regarding the situation in Syria, accusing Moscow of not doing what was required under the Sochi agreement.

Çavuşoğlu warned that his country would launch a new military operation in the north-east of Syria, if the area was not cleared of the People’s Protection Units (YPG).