Lavrov: US is main threat to Syrian integrity

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that the United States’ control over the eastern bank of the River Euphrates posed the main threat to Syria’s territorial integrity. He also said that Russia and Turkey have agreed on the borders of an Idlib demilitarized zone and that Nusra front fighters should leave the zone by mid-October. DEBKAfile: This agreement was negotiated as a device for delaying the joint Russian-Iranian-Syrian offensive to regain Idlib from rebel hands, at Turkey’s insistence, and is not expected to hold water for long.