BALADI NEWS
Syria does not want to see fighting with Turkey, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, after Ankara said one of its posts in Syria's Idlib region was attacked from an area controlled by Syrian government forces.
Russia, which supports Bashar Al-Assad in his country's civil war, and Turkey, long a backer of the rebels fighting him, co-sponsored a de-escalation pact for the area that has been in place since last year.
But the deal has faltered in recent months, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee. About 300 people have been killed by Syrian and Russian air raids and shelling in the area since late April, according to the United Nations.
Idlib, in Syria's northwest along the border with Turkey, is the last remaining bastion of anti-government rebels after eight years of civil war.
"We hope that our military and the Turkish military do not fight. This is our principled stance," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told reporters in Beijing, standing alongside the Chinese government's top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi.
Source: Al Jazeera.