Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to journalists in Istanbul, Turkey, Feb. 3, 2020. (Turkish Presidential Palace/Handout via Xinhua)
Peskov said Turkey failed to ensure the separation of troops and the withdrawal of heavy weapons in the Idlib de-escalation zone.
MOSCOW, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has yet to fulfill its obligations under a 2018 agreement regarding Syria's last rebel stronghold of Idlib, the Kremlin said on Sunday.
According to the Tass news agency, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Turkey failed to ensure the separation of troops and the withdrawal of heavy weapons in the Idlib de-escalation zone.
Weapons have fallen into the hands of militants in Idlib, which have complicated the situation there, Peskov added in an interview with a local TV channel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Russia's resort town of Sochi in September 2018 and agreed to establish a de-escalation zone in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria.
But the agreement was never fully implemented as militants were not removed from the zone and armed conflict failed to die down.
Last month, Erdogan accused Russia of not abiding by the Sochi agreement, while Peskov said then that Russia fully complied with all its obligations. ■
