Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was cited on Monday as saying his country would launch a new military operation in northeast Syria if the area was not cleared of Kurdish YPG militia.
Cavusoglu was quoted by the state-owned Anadolu agency as saying that Russia and the United States had not done what was required under agreements that halted a Turkish offensive last month and called on them to do what was necessary.
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"Thanks to a range of measures implemented by the Russian Federation, it was possible to significantly stabilize the situation," Major General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry, said in a statement.
"The head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry's call for military action can only escalate the situation in northern Syria rather than sort things out in the way set out in a joint memorandum signed by the presidents of Russia and Turkey," Konashenkov added.
