Russia will take necessary measures to protect Idlib de-escalation zone: FM

Russia will take the necessary measures to protect the de-escalation zone in Syria's Idlib, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Tuesday.

Ankara hopes for stability in Syria and wants no more blood to be shed there, Çavuşoğlu stated, a day after Ankara and Moscow reached an agreement on Syria.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced an agreement on Monday that Russian and Turkish troops will enforce a new demilitarized zone in the Idlib region.

"The borders of Idlib will be protected under the memorandum of understanding signed in Sochi. There would be no change in the status of Idlib," Çavuşoğlu said.

Turkey will reinforce troop deployments in Idlib after agreeing a demilitarized zone which it will jointly patrol with Russia, Çavuşoğlu said.

"Russia and Turkey will carry out joint, coordinated patrols here, around the Idlib border. We will need to make additional troop deployments here," Çavuşoğlu told a news conference.

He said the M4 and M5 highways, which run east to west and north to south through the Idlib region, linking the government-held city of Aleppo with Damascus and the Mediterranean coast, would be open to traffic by the end of the year.

The minister said heavy weapons will be removed from demilitarized zone in Idlib, adding: "Civilians will stay, only terrorist groups will be removed."

He added heavy weapons will be removed from demilitarized zone in Idlib by Oct. 15. Çavuşoğlu said the region would be cleared off from "radicals" and cease-fire would be ensured.