AGENCIES / KIRKENES /Norway/
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has rejected the idea to set up a NATO-controlled safe zone in northeastern Syria, saying it will come to no good since there is an agreement on resolving the situation in the country reached by Russia and Turkey.
Talking to media at a news conference in Kirkenes on Friday, he noted that NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg “began making strange statements that some NATO members back this idea” and some others are not particularly enthusiastic about it. “Since they say that NATO wants to assume responsibility of course, there is nothing good about this idea. There are the Russian-Turkish agreements backed by both Damascus and the Kurds. They must be implemented,” he said.
Commenting on the initiative to set up an internationally controlled safe zone in northeastern Syria, Lavrov noted that there was no understanding in Russia what specifically was meant. “That initiative was first put forward by German Defense Minister [Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer], but it was immediately criticized by other parts of the German government,” he added.