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AFP
Beirut
Russia and Turkey said Tuesday their deal to set up a buffer zone for the last major Syrian rebel bastion of Idlib was still on course, despite militants missing a deadline to withdraw.
The agreement, reached by key powerbrokers Moscow and Ankara last month, gave"radical fighters"until Monday to leave a horseshoe-shaped area around Idlib intended to separate government from opposition forces. But militants have held their ground, with a monitoring group saying Tuesday there were still"no signs"of an evacuation.
"The memorandum is being implemented and the military are satisfied with the way the Turkish side is working in this regard,"Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
"Of course one cannot expect everything to go smoothly with absolutely no glitches, but the work is being carried out."Soon after, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the process of implementation was"ongoing."
