Turkey, Russia, Iran discuss troop presence in Syria

By Ilkay Guder and Enes Kaplan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Thursday that Turkey, Russia and Iran have been working on a plan to station their forces in de-escalation areas in Syria.

“If these forces are stationed there, it would minimize the probability of clashes [between the regime and opposition groups],” Kalin told correspondents in Ankara.

He said that Russian and Turkish forces could be stationed in the Idlib region while Damascus and neighboring areas could see the presence of mainly Iranian and Russian troops and forces from Jordan and the U.S: could be stationed in the southern Deraa region.

Russia, Turkey and Iran signed a deal in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on May 4 to establish four main “de-escalation zones” in Syria.

Since then these areas in Syria have for the most part been conflict-free.

Kalin added that delegations from Turkey, Russia and Iran were discussing the logistics of the conflict-free zones.

“They are working on [which country’s] forces would be deployed between regime and opposition, the number of these forces and the mechanism of this forces,” he said.

The main aim of the mechanism is to provide a structure to the cease-fire in Syria, kalin said.

Kalın stated the upcoming Astana talks would likely cement the deal on stationed forces in Syria.