The interim government and Turkey deny Russia’s claims to open crossings between opposition areas and the Assad regime
Today, Thursday, Turkey and the Syrian Interim Government denied Russia’s claims to open crossings between the Syrian opposition areas and the Assad regime in northwestern Syria.
“Reuters” agency quoted Turkish security officials as saying: “Russia’s announcement to open two border crossings in northwestern Syria is incorrect,” without further details.
The head of the Syrian Interim Government, Abd al-Rahman Mustafa, said on Twitter: “We confirm that the news of the opening of the crossings is not true, in its entirety,” and stressed the position of the interim government not to compromise the fundamentals of what he described as the blessed revolution.
Media close to the regime and Russia published pictures of soldiers from the Assad regime at the Tarnbah-Saraqib crossings in eastern Idlib and Abu Zendin, east of Aleppo, without the presence of any civilians, and said that the Assad regime forces had opened them “to receive the people who wanted to leave the opposition areas,” as they claimed.
This comes after the Russian Defense Ministry announced yesterday, Thursday, that it had reached an agreement with the Turkish side to open 3 crossings between the Assad regime and the opposition in Idlib and Aleppo.
After signing the ceasefire agreement in March 2020, Russia tried several times to open crossings with the opposition, but it did not succeed due to the popular opposition.
This coincides with a suffocating economic crisis in the regime-held areas, which is reflected in queues in order to obtain basic necessities of life, and it also followed a military escalation by the regime and Russia in northwestern Syria targeting areas close to the Bab al-Hawa crossing, the only humanitarian aid crossing to Idlib.
