Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov were in Damascus on Sept. 7, where they met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.
The Russian side discussed the joint Russian and Turkish operation to liberate the Idlib de-escalation zone which Lavrov said at a joint press conference was “the most important area of Russia-Turkey joint efforts.”
“We have coordinated very concrete and clear arrangements and the distribution of responsibilities. They stipulate the separation of the normal and reasonable opposition from the terrorists, the liberation of the М4 highway and the creation of a safety corridor along it. The movement towards these goals is sustainable, though slow. There are grounds to believe that we will complete this job,” Lavrov stated.
Referring to agreements for economic projects, Borisov reported that “last July Moscow handed Damascus a Russian project for expanding trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, indicating that the new agreement between Syria and Russia includes more than 40 new projects in for reconstructing the energy sector, a number of hydroelectric power stations and the extraction of oil from the sea.” In addition, “a work contract was signed for a Russian company to explore and extract oil and gas off the Syrian coast.”
Borisov also referred to the negative effect of the fact that most of the areas rich in oil and gas are outside the control of the Syrian government, and the fact that important agricultural lands as well, have forced Syria to import grain.
For his part, Muallem confirmed that Syria will hold a presidential election next year. He also said that once the Constitutional Committee working in Geneva drafts a new Constitution, the results will be put to a referendum.
