Free Syrian Army Against Iranian Troops' Deployment to Safe Zones

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – According to him, the presence of Iranian troops in safe zones is a problem.

"If Russia wants this proposal to be effective, it needs to completely exclude Iranians from these zones as there is great likelihood that actions will be taken against these servicemen," Fateh Hassoun said.

"We are not being consulted with directly. Maybe there will be consultations between the guarantor states … Nobody notified us, the armed opposition groups, of anything officially, we received this information from the media, so unofficially… We as revolutionaries welcome any intervention by Turkey as a guarantor in the north and any intervention of our Jordanian brothers in the south," the opposition figure said.

Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed last month to set up safe zones across Syria with consent of Damascus. Russia's chief negotiator at peace talks in Astana, Alexander Lavrentyev, said Moscow was ready to send troops to patrol the outer perimeter of these zones and would welcome participation of other countries if a consensus is reached.

The trio, who are state guarantors of Syrian peace, hope the four zones will provide conditions for the return of millions of refugees, over 660,000 of whom are hosted by Jordan.

"As a guarantor, Turkey has sent invitations to several representatives of opposition to a meeting in Ankara to discuss what will be proposed at the upcoming round of talks in Astana. This meeting will take place two-three days before the trip to Astana with participation of the groups which were present at the last round in Astana. The meeting will take place to coordinate actions on de-escalation zones," Fateh Hassoun said.

According to Hassoun, the armed Syrian opposition groups have not yet received an invitation for the talks.