A memorandum on establishing de-escalation zones in Syria envisages a ceasefire in the designated areas from May 6, Head of Russia’s Delegation and Russian Presidential Envoy on the Syrian Settlement Alexander Lavrentyev said, TASS reports.
"From the sixth day, all hostilities will cease on the territories preliminarily defined by our military experts," he said.
"Further observance of the ceasefire will largely depend directly on armed opposition formations staying in de-escalation zones and also on terrorist organizations, first of all, Jabhat al-Nusra [outlawed in Russia] whose presence on these territories is quite considerable," the envoy said.
A memorandum on establishing de-escalation zones in Syria was signed on May 4 by Russian Presidential Envoy on the Syrian Settlement Alexander Lavrentyev on Russia’s behalf, Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister for the Middle East and Africa Sedat Onal on Turkey’s behalf and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Countries Hossein Jaberi Ansari on Iran’s behalf.
As the Russian envoy said earlier, Moscow came up with a proposal to establish the so-called de-escalation zones as it believed that this "can really help resolve the old problem of separating the Syrian moderate opposition from terrorist organizations."