Russia Made Proposals to Ease Tensions in Syria, Member of Armed Opposition Says

Russia has come up with proposals to ease tensions in Syria, appearing to show itself as a "guarantor of a political process," a representative of the Syrian armed opposition said Sunday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Fatih Hassoun, a representative of the Syrian armed opposition told Sputnik, that Russia has made proposals aimed at reducing tensions in the conflict zones of Syria and at respect of the ceasefire regime.

"There are Russia's proposals, useful in their realism, about respect of the ceasefire regime, about creation of zones of de-escalation of tensions and about involvement of new international actors in these agreements," Hassoun said Sunday.

He added that Moscow's proposal implied that the troops deployed at such zones would be sent by countries not involved in the ongoing military activities in the crisis-torn country.

However, Hassoun stressed that Moscow had not proposed any exact countries that were meant to deploy special forces to the separation line between the Syrian government troops and the opposition forces.

"But if the new Russian proposals are approved, a working group will be created. They will discuss the countries that could join this agreement," Hassoun added.

According to Hassoun, the proposal means that Russia "has started activities as a guarantor of a political process" and that's why the international community would be involved in the Astana settlement talks to a greater extent.

The nationwide Syrian ceasefire regime was introduced on December 30, 2016, with Russia and Turkey serving as its guarantors. The UN Security Council passed a resolution in December supporting the effort. Terrorist organizations operating in the country are not part of the ceasefire.

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