Ankara Maintains Contact With Damascus Through Moscow, Tehran - Erdogan's Spokesman

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th April, 2019) Turkey, which is one of the guarantors of the ceasefire regime in Syria, does not maintain direct dialogue with Syrian authorities and instead uses mediation of fellow guarantors, Iran and Russia, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Thursday.

"We have no dialogue with the Syrian regime. If necessary, we maintain it with the help of Russia or Iran. At the same time, we are guided first of all by the need to ensure the security of our borders," Kalin told reporters.

Ankara continues to take part in the work on formation of the Syrian constitutional committee, the spokesman noted.

"Our priority is to make the agreement [with Russia] on Idlib sustainable, we have largely succeeded in achieving this," Kalin added.

The constitutional committee will be charged with overhauling the Syrian constitution. The Syrian government and the opposition each submitted a roster of members in September 2018, but a dispute over UN-proposed independent candidates prevented the panel from being convened by the end of the previous year.

The Idlib province is the last major stronghold of terrorists and armed rebels in Syria. In September 2018, ceasefire guarantors Russia and Turkey agreed to set up in Idlib a 9-12 mile deep demilitarized zone, which would be cleared of heavy weapons and militants. However, despite progress in the withdrawal of weapons and fighters from the area, remaining militants regularly commit ceasefire violations by shelling nearby provinces.