NEW YORK. March 2 (Interfax) - Russia is convinced that the deconflicting mechanism will enable avoiding losses in Syria's Idlib in the future, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said.
"We regret the fact the Turkish soldiers died, just as we regret the reports about the deaths of Syrian soldiers. We are convinced that compliance with the agreements, including those on de-conflicting, will make it possible to avoid such tragedies in the future," he said at the UN Security Council's emergency meeting on Idlib.
Russia's "military forces 'in the field' are ready to continue this work," Nebenzya said.
Astana-format contacts are continuing, he said. "We are convinced that if the military, diplomats and representatives of security services participating in the Astana format focus on basic agreements on the Idlib de-escalation zone, it will pave the way to real changes 'in the field,'" Nebenzya said.
Additionally, "in response to the ongoing violations of the ceasefire from within the Idlib zone, the Syrian army does have a right to retaliate and quell the terrorists," he said.
"Here, we can't ban the Syrian army from upholding the commitments stipulated in UN Security Council resolutions on uncompromising fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. And I would emphasize that this is in its own territory, the territory of sovereign Syria and not in nobody else's territory," the diplomat said.
The situation in the Idlib de-escalation area, where there has been fighting between the Syrian army and militants backed by Turkey, has drastically exacerbated. On Thursday, 33 Turkish servicemen were killed in an airstrike conducted by the Syrian army in the Idlib zone. Turkish troops retaliated with air and ground attacks on the positions of the Syrian ground forces in the early hours of Friday.