Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Sunday that Ankara is coordinating its actions in the Syrian province of Idlib with Moscow in order to ensure security in the region.

“We will ensure security in Idlib, and we are working with Russia on this issue,” Yildirim said, as quoted by the NTV broadcaster.

On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced plans to deploy the country’s soldiers to Syria’s Idlib, where the so-called Free Syrian Army militants backed by Ankara have launched an operation.

Yildirim also said that Russia has agreed to provide air support to the operation, however, there has been no official comment by the Russian Defense Ministry yet supporting the claim.

Currently, Idlib is mostly controlled by Tahrir al-Sham, a militant group led by al-Nusra Front terrorist group, al-Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate. The group is not party to the agreement on setting up a de-escalation zone in Idlib agreed upon during the Syrian peace talks in Astana brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey.

Source: Sputnik