Assad acknowledged that the recent capture of extensive territories in the northwestern province of Idlib, to armed groups unofficially supported by Turkey, does not mean an immediate end to the nine years of war.
The President presaged, however, the final defeat of the revolt that tried to overthrow him.
As a sign from the Government that the war is drawing to a close, O
Syrian Transport Minister announced this Monday the return
of air operations at Aleppo International Airport as of Tuesday.
According to Syrian opposition news agencies, thousands of people will have taken to the streets in the city to celebrate the victory of the Armed Forces.
Syrian soldiers keep a watch on the highway that links Aleppo to the
capital, Damascus, recently conquered and where the locks and controls
are being dismantled, they added.
In praising the country’s armed forces for their recent successes, Assad said the Syrian people are “determined to free all Syrian territories from terrorism”.
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“I was well aware that Syrian Arab soldiers are fighting with all their might, and the patriotism of Aleppo residents, coupled with their sense of affiliation with their ethnic homeland and army, will alter the enemy’s calculations,” said Assad .
The Syrian President then attacked Turkey, without mentioning it
directly, warning that countries “hostile to the Syrian people are still
try to protect terrorists who use civilians as hostages and shields
humans”.
Assad said that one cannot continue to tolerate such a situation, at the expense of life, security and stability of the country’s citizens.
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US and Turkey denounce atrocities
The Syrian Armed Forces announced on Monday the expulsion in the last days of the groups jihadists from the province of Aleppo.
They said more than 30 villages were freed from Islamist control and pledged, with Russian forces, to hunt down Islamic extremists “wherever they are”.
In a television speech, army spokesman General Ali Mayhoub said that Syrian troops continue to advance on the ground to “eradicate what remains of terrorist groups” in Syria. The soldiers are to be congratulated for the rapid advance “in record time”, he stressed.
According to Mayhoub, the remaining jihadist groups are now refugees in a small part of Idlib province, already being harassed by Syrian and Russian operations.
The President of the USA and his counterpart had a telephone conversation on the day that the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, declared that the victory of the Syrian regime was “inevitable”.UN: 900 thousand on the run
According to United Nations figures, the military advance of the army
Syrian, supported by the Russian Air Force, led since December to the flight of
almost 875 thousand Syrians for areas along the Turkish border. They are, in their
mostly women and children.
David Swanson, a spokesman for the Cabinet
of the UN for the Coordination of Humanitarian Issues, revealed this
Monday that the most recent wave, about four thousand in the last four days, comes from the region of Aleppo, where
strong armed clashes have taken place.
Half a million of the fugitives in the past ten weeks are children, Swanson said.
Qatar television reporters, Al Jazeera, say that thousands of children are being forced to sleep outside in temperatures of minus 10 degrees Celsius, due to a lack of space in camps run by the UN.
Last week, after several armed clashes killed several Turkish soldiers, President Erdogan promised to take the war to all of Syria, if any more of his soldiers died. He also promised to expel Syrian forces from all key points in Idlib.
Erdogan also accused Russia of being an accomplice to Assad in the bombing of civilian populations, during the offensive to reconquer Idlib by Damascus.
Ankara, which deployed military reinforcements to the Syrian province as part of a ceasefire plan agreed with Moscow, was then forced to also threaten to punish armed groups that took up arms.
Turkey has 12 observation posts in Idlib – the result of the 2018 agreement between Ankara and Moscow – with the aim of preventing a government offensive.
However, Bashar al-Assad’s forces advanced independently. Four Turkish outposts are surrounded by Syrian forces. Ankara has threatened to attack Damascus if they do not withdraw by the end of this month.
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