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The Turksitan Islamic Party (linked with al-Qaeda), Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (linked with al-Qaeda) and the National Front for Liberation (cooperates with al-Qaeda-linked groups) announced that they are not planning to withdraw their forces from the area along the M4 highway in southern Idlib.
This particular area was set to be turned into a buffer zone without radical militants and heavy weapons by the recent Russian-Turkish ceasefire agreement.
If no real withdrawal of radicals from the buffer zone happen, the buffer zone agreemnt becomes a merely formality that will not help to stabilize the situation in Greater Idlib. Terrorist groups, which control over 80% of the area, will remain on its positions and continue attacks on Syrian government forces and civilian areas inside the government-controlled territory. This will inevitably lead to a new round of escalation.
