Home Current Putin, Erdogan Spar Over Syria Militants Amid Split on Safe Zone

Putin, Erdogan Spar Over Syria Militants Amid Split on Safe Zone

86

Putin, Erdogan Spar Over Syria Militants Amid Split on Safe ZoneWhile Putin urged Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at a summit on Thursday to work out ways to “completely destroy the terrorist hotbed” in the Idlib region, a joint statement after the talks referred only to the need for “concrete steps” to restore a September truce shattered by the Islamist takeover last month. Erdogan said he’d “relayed our expectations” to Putin and Rouhani for Syrian government forces to “abide by the cease-fire” agreed in September, and for Russia and Iran to support Turkey’s demand for a buffer zone inside northern Syria to counter U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in the region.