WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States and Russia signed the bilateral memorandum of understanding in October 2015 to ensure their flight safety during combat missions over Syria.
"We have had to increase the amount of deconfliction work we are doing with the Russians given the tighter airspace that we are now working ourselves through," Harrigian said.
In November 2016, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which predominately consists of Kurdish fighters, but also includes members of the Syrian Arab Coalition, launched an operation called the Rage of Euphrates in order to seize control over Syrian Raqqa, the de facto Daesh capital, and are now starting the fourth stage of the campaign aimed at liberating the rural areas of Raqqa province from terrorists.
"They [the zones] are largely temporary."
The United States has taken no action regarding de-escalation zones in Syria backed by Russia, Iran and Turkey,Harrigian said in a briefing on Wednesday.
"We have not done anything specifically to plan for those [zones] or to accept those as areas that we would de-conflict in," Harrigian told reporters.
Earlier in May, Russia, Turkey and Iran signed the memorandum on establishment of safe zones in the country as part of the Astana talks on Syrian settlement. The four zones include the northwestern Idlib province and parts of neighboring Latakia, Hama and Aleppo, the north of the central Homs province, Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, as well as the southern Daraa and Quneitra regions.
