US Unaware of Progress in Syria's De-Escalation Zones Set-Up - Pentagon

The United States is not aware of progress in the process of setting up de-escalation zones in western Syria as Washington is not a party to the Astana agreement concerning such zones, US Department of Defense spokesperson Capt. Jeff Davis said in a briefing on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – When asked whether the United States has seen any indication of progress in the de-escalation zones set up, Davis said "We have not."

"As a practical matter, these are not areas where we operate," he noted.

Davis also said the de-escalation zones have more to do with the civil war in the west of Syria than with the fight against the Daesh terror group (banned in Russia).

"It [the zones] has not changed our operations in any way. There were multiple communications about it, but we are not party to the agreement itself," Davis concluded.

The Kazakh capital of Astana hosted four rounds of talks on Syrian crisis settlement with the latest round earlier in May resulting in an agreement on creating de-escalation zones in Syria's Idlib province as well as in seven other regions.

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it would be effective to include the United States in the work to coordinate the parameters of the de-escalation zones in Syria.

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