Syria urges illegal foreign forces to leave Arab country

Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar al-Ja’afari has called on all foreign forces, who are operating on Syrian soil without Damascus’ consent, to leave the Arab country.

Ja’afari made the request during a press conference at the end of the 11th round of talks on the Syria crisis in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on Thursday.

He accused the US, Britain, France and Turkey of dispatching troops to Syria illegally and occupying some areas in the war-torn state.

“There is a clear discrepancy in the stances taken by the US, France and Britain who have already agreed on the UN Security Council resolutions on commitment to Syria’s sovereignty; meanwhile these countries have been deploying their troops illegally in Syria,” he said.

He also expressed concerns about the illegal Turkish military presence in Syria in violation of Ankara’s commitments in the Astana and Sochi agreements.

So far, 11 rounds of Syria peace talks, mediated by Iran, Russia and Turkey, have been held in Astana. The 10th round of the discussions took place in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi back in July 30-31.

The talks have brought representatives from Syria’s warring parties to the negotiating table and resulted in the establishment of safe zones across the country.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ja’afari raised alarm at the complicity of certain countries in delivering chemical weapons to terrorists in Syria’s Idlib Province.

“The use of shells containing chemical substances by terrorist organizations indicate an escalation by the sponsors of terrorism,” he said.

Separately on Thursday, the 11 round of the Astana talks published a closing statement, condemning any use of chemical arms in Syria and demanding a transparent probe into reports concerning the issue.

Fresh round of Syria talks begins in Kazakh capital

The 11th round of talks on the resolution of the Syria crisis kicks off in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

In the statement, Tehran, Moscow and Ankara, which are acting as the guarantors of an all-Syria ceasefire, reaffirmed their determination to fight terrorism in Syria and eliminate Daesh, Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups there.

The guarantor countries further “reaffirmed their strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic and to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.”

Russia: Daesh planning gas attack in Syria

On Wednesday, Russia warned that Daesh Takfiri terrorists had been planning a chemical weapons attack on the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed coalition of mainly Kurdish militants, in order to provoke an airstrike by the US-led coalition against the Syrian army.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that 11 terrorists trained abroad had arrived in Syria and are currently filling mines with chemical substances.

“The chemical munitions are planned to be used in an attack on the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces … in the Hajin area of the Dayr al-Zawr Province,” the statement read.

On April 7, an alleged chemical weapons attack hit the Damascus suburb town of Douma,  just as the Syrian army was about to win the battle against the militants there.

Western states blamed the Syrian government for the incident, but Damascus firmly rejected the accusation.

One week after the suspected gas attack, the US, Britain and France launched a coordinated missile strike against sites and research facilities near Damascus and Homs with the purported goal of paralyzing the Syrian government’s capability to produce chemicals.

This is while Syria surrendered its entire chemical stockpile in 2013 to a mission led by the OPCW and the UN.