TEHERAN, February 16. /TASS/: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called on Turkey to abide by the agreements reached during talks with the Russian side in Sochi.
"The Sochi process has a huge significance. It should not be abandoned," he said on Sunday. "I hope we will be able to continue work with Turkey within the Astana process."
"Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreed [under the Sochi memorandum] to stay committed to two things," he said. "First, Syria’s entire territory is to be controlled by Damascus. Second, it is necessary to continue fight against terrorists."
On October 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Sochi to agree a ten-provision memorandum on joint operations to control the situation in northeastern Syria. Under the arrangement, Russian military police and Syrian border guards were to be deployed to Syrian territories outside the zone of Turkey’s operation in Syria from noon on October 23. Kurdish units were to withdraw to a distance of 30 kilometers of the Syrian-Turkish border by October 29. After that, Russian and Turkish militaries were to begin joint patrolling missions. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported on the ultimatum expiration day that all Kurdish armed units had been pulled out of the buffer zone.
