Moscow prepared on Monday a wide-range escalation in Damascus’ Ghouta, where regime forces surged their attacks, killing and injuring tens of civilians.
"The experience gained in Aleppo, when an agreement was reached with militants on their organized exodus, can be used in Eastern Ghouta,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday .
Speaking during a press conference with his Algerian counterpart Abdelkader Massahel in Moscow, the diplomat said that subsequent efforts to organize large-scale evacuation of civilians from that area encountered Jabhat al-Nusra’s refusal as it seeks to keep these people as a human shield.
According to Lavrov, Jabhat al-Nusra keeps on attacking civil facilities and Damascus’ dwelling quarters.
"The Russian embassy was a target for such attacks several times. Not long ago, the building of Russia’s trade mission was severely damaged in such an attack," he added.
The Russian minister said the Syrian regime forces and the Russian aerospace group that supports will continue their efforts to suppress this terrorist wing of Qaeda.
On Monday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that heavy Syrian bombardment killed 44 civilians in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta on Monday, including 20 killed in air strikes on Hammuriyeh and nine others in bombardment on Saqba, on the outskirts of the capital Damascus.
Russian media sources confirmed reports saying that the Syrian regime would use new weapons in the upcoming Ghouta battle.
It seems that an agreement between the Syrian regime and Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) concerning the Syrian city of Afrin is awaiting Russia’s approval.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conducted telephone calls to both his Russian and Iranian counterparts Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani to discuss the latest developments in Afrin and Idlib.
A Turkish presidential source said that Erdogan and Putin discussed the process of establishing new observation posts in the Syrian town of Idlib.
For his part, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that, “If they are getting there to clean out YPG, then there is no problem. But If Syrian forces are entering Afrin to protect YPG, no one can militarily stop us.”
