Syrian government troops backed by the Russian Aerospace Forces have prevented militants from breaking out of the Al-Tanf area in Homs toward Palmyra, the Russian reconciliation center said.
Damascus has repeatedly called the US presence in the southern Syrian town of al-Tanf “illegal” and has insisted that American forces withdraw from the region immediately.
Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem stressed that Syria is a sovereign state and it will cooperate with whoever it wishes on counterterrorism.
Control over the southern borders of Syria, including the al-Tanf area, will be handed over to the government forces of Syria after the Paris talks, a source familiar with the situation told Sputnik.
The US State Department issued a statement late on Friday, saying it was “concerned” by leaflets that were reportedly dropped by government aircraft in the province of Daraa. Retired Brigadier Ali Maqsud told Sputnik that the US is creating obstacles for the Syrian army to continue its liberation of occupied regions.
Russia and Egypt are united in their belief that there is no military solution to the conflict in Syria. Moscow and Cairo will coordinate actions on this issue, Lavrov said after talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Moscow.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry had said that Syrian air defenses intercepted 71 of more than 100 missiles that the United States, the United Kingdom, France launched on Friday in response to the alleged chemical attack in Syria’s Douma.
The Russian Defense Ministry has commented on a joint US, British and French missile strike on Syria, which took place on the day, when the OPCW experts are set to start a probe into allegations of a chemical attack in Douma
Over 800,000 people have returned to the Syrian city of Aleppo and its suburbs, liberated from the Jabhat al Nusra terrorist group (banned in Russia), the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, and explained how the US is preventing the return of Syrian territories under government control.
Russia is calling on the United States not to hinder the access of humanitarian organizations