Oct. 19 (UPI) — Russia and Turkey agreed Thursday to allow opposition groups more time to exit Syria’s western Idlib province as they work to establish a demilitarized zone, the United Nations said.
Jan Egeland, senior adviser to the U.N. special envoy for Syria, said it was a “relief” there had been no further violence in the region amid the attempt to set up the zone.
“The Russian and the Turkish side have indicated that indeed more time will be given to implement the agreement,” Egeland told reporters in Geneva.
“Some of the first deadlines have passed … there will be more time for diplomacy and that is a great relief to us,” he said, adding that “if one is to follow a military logic that has too often been followed in this war alone, it would be horrific news for civilians.”
In mid-September, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced they would create the demilitarized zoneby Oct. 15 during a meeting in Sochi, Russia.
Putin said the zone will extend 9 miles to 12 miles deep and that all militants should evacuate the zone along with “heavy armaments, rocket launchers, tanks and mortars of all opposition forces,” by Oct. 10.
The leaders also announced both Turkish and Russian forces would patrol the demilitarized zone.
Egeland said there haven’t been any air raids in the province in five weeks.
“I can’t remember such a period for the last three years in Idlib. It’s a calm through this very sensitive, complex, difficult area full of three million civilians. It is a welcome calm,” he said.
In addition to opposition group, some 3 million civilians live in Idlib, including 12,000 humanitarian workers, the United Nations said. Some civilians there have fled from other areas of Syria, including from the provinces of Dar’a and Quneitra, and Eastern Ghouta and the outskirts of Damascus.
