Syria Backs De-Escalation Zones, Army to Decisively Confront Violations: FM

He said the government in Damascus approves the achievements of the Astana 4 talks, particularly with regard to signing a memorandum on establishing four de-escalation zones in Syria.
 
Addressing a press conference in Damascus on Monday, al Muallem however warned that if any violation takes place, the Syrian army will be prepared to respond in a decisive manner.
 
Last week Iran, Russia and Turkey adopted a memorandum on the creation of four security zones in Syria, during peace talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana. The three countries are the guarantors of the agreement.
 
Al Muallem went onto say that, “of course, we look forward that this memorandum will achieve its intentions which are basically separating the armed groups which signed the agreement of the cessation of hostilities on 30/12/2016 from al-Nusra Front and the ISIS and the other groups affiliated to them.”
 
Regarding the political track, al-Muallem said that the Syrian government has always been present in the Geneva meetings, noting that the date for the next round of these meetings hasn’t been set yet, adding that unfortunately the Geneva track remains at a standstill because there is no patriotic opposition that thinks about Syria instead of receiving instructions from their masters.
 
No UN supervision
 
Al-Muallem asserted that there will not be international forces under the supervision of the UN, and the Russian guarantor clarified that military police forces will be deployed, in addition to monitoring centers, noting that the memo on de-escalation zones has a duration of six months that can be renewed if this experiment proves successful and produces the desired results.
 
He stressed that in all proposed de-escalation zones there are groups which signed the agreement and there are al-Nusra Front and ISIS terrorist organizations and other terrorist groups linked to them, and what is required is separating the terrorist groups which signed from those which didn’t sign, these groups should leave those zones and they are not welcomed if they came to the areas controlled by our forces.
 
Europe, US played destructive role in Syria
 
Regarding the French elections, al-Muallem said “We respect the choice of the French people. You remember that in 2011, I deleted Europe from the map as we haven’t felt any role by Europe, except a destructive role which is automatically linked to the US.”
 
On the possibility of al-Nusra Front, which is not part of the memorandum, carrying out attacks, al-Moallem said, “I don’t exclude the possibility of violating the memorandum of the de-escalation areas by Turkey which is one of the guarantor states who signed the memorandum.”
 
De-escalation zones not safe zones
 
On whether there’s concern about turning de-escalation zones into “safe zones” gradually, al-Muallem said the two concepts are different, as the latter is about safe zones set up and maintained by the UN which is unacceptable.
 
On the political prices paid by all sides to reduce the US escalation and reach the Astana agreement, al-Muallem asserted that Syria hasn’t paid any price, but it seems that the Americans realized that they acted hastily in carrying out their aggression.
 
On the fact that Raqqa is excluded from the memorandum, al-Muallem who is also Syria’s Deputy Prime Minister said that the memo excluded it along with other areas where ISIS terrorists are active, as the country’s army will continue fighting ISIS and al-Nusra Front, adding that the presence of ISIS and al-Nusra in certain areas would make it difficult to expand the de-escalation zones later.
 
Al-Muallem also said that Damascus considered the deployment of Jordanian forces in southern Syria an act of aggression, but added that Syria was not about to confront Jordan.