Russian FM says to continue cooperation with U.S. in Syria

Russia and the United States will continue cooperation in Syria

on the basis of a trilateral agreement with Jordan on setting up a

de-escalation zone in the war-torn country, Russian Foreign Minister

Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

"Although yesterday, from 12 p.m. Syrian time, the regime of

ceasefire became effective, it has to be strengthened, so there will be

plenty of work to be done there," Lavrov told a press conference.

On Friday, Russia, the United States and Jordan reached a deal to

support a ceasefire in southwest Syria, setting up a de-escalation zone

to create appropriate environment for reaching a political solution to

the situation in the Middle East country.

Lavrov said the agreement envisages the elaboration of additional details on the practical functioning of the zone.

To coordinate those details, it was agreed to put into operation a

monitoring center, which is being created by Russia, the United States

and Jordan in the Jordanian capital of Amman, and which will be in

permanent contact with the Syrian government forces and the opposition,

he said.

According to Lavrov, the participants in the talks on Syria in the

Kazakh capital of Astana were close to reaching an agreement on setting

up two more de-escalation zones in the western Syrian region of Homs and

in the eastern region of Ghouta, and talks were continuing on another

zone in the northwestern governorate of Idlib.

Lavrov said Russia saluted "active participation" of the United

States in the Astana process and would keep cheering it, in spite of

Washington's observer status at the talks.

He added that Moscow also maintained stable contacts with Washington

at the talks in Geneva, which were restarting on Monday, as well as with

other key countries, which influenced the developments in Syria.

"We have to consider attitudes of a very big number of players when

referring to its solution, and it is not easy to reconcile those

positions and to find the balance of interests. But as the

Russia-U.S.-Jordan agreement of July 7 has shown, it is possible,"

Lavrov said.

The Syrian war, now into its seventh year, has taken a toll on the

country's population with hundreds of thousands being killed, around 6.3

million being displaced within the country, and 5.1 million being

forced to flee as refugees outside its borders.

Over the past months, the situation is particularly dire in Raqqa,

where an offensive was launched to take the city from the Islamic State

terrorist group. About 25,000 have reportedly fled the city since

military operations started. However as many as 100,000 civilians could

still be trapped there.