Escalation breaks Putin, Erdogan truce

NEWS DESK

On Monday, Arab newspapers touched upon the military escalation in the areas of the Russian-Turkish truce.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat: Russian raids on the "buffer zone" after an anonymous chemical attack

On Monday, the Arab newspapers touched upon the Syrian issue and dealt with several issues, the most important of which was the military escalation in the areas of the Russian-Turkish truce. In this context, the buffer zone in the north of Syria, on Sunday, witnessed a military breakthrough that was the first of its kind since the Turkish-Russian agreement held two months ago when Russian warplanes targeted opposition's sites in the countryside of Aleppo. Moscow said that the raids were in response to the targeting of the city of Aleppo on Sunday evening with missiles carrying toxic gases, likely to be "chlorine."

The newspaper added, "As the chemical attack caused the injury of 100 people in the area under the domination of the regime, Damascus accused "terrorist organizations" without specifying them with responsibility, and the Syrian Foreign Ministry called on the Security Council to condemn these terrorist crimes immediately and severely. In turn, the Syrian opposition sources denied in statements to «al-Sharq al-Awsat» the involvement of the opposition in the attack, and accused an extremist organization loyal to al-Qaida to stand behind it.

Al-Arab: Aleppo attack in favor of Assad's desire to resolve Idlib's file militarily

"The Idlib agreement between Russia and Turkey is in danger of collapse as a result of the unprecedented escalation in northern Syria due to the exposure of areas in Aleppo under the government's control to an attack with weapons containing chlorine gas on Saturday, injuring dozens of civilians," the newspaper said.

The newspaper pointed out, "Moscow and Damascus accused the opposition factions to be responsible for this serious breach of the ceasefire which the latter denied, holding the Syrian regime the responsibility for what happened to justify its military intervention in Idlib and the surrounding areas. Observers see that the attack was in favor of the Syrian regime, rejecting the agreement. The regime adopts the military option to resolve the conflict against the opposition factions. In the agreement that took place at the summit held in September 17 in Sochi between the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the two presidents made clear the desire of the President Bashar al-Assad to sweep the last strongholds of the opposition in Idlib and other parts under the control of the opposition in Aleppo and Hama.

(T/S)

ANHA