Russia and Turkey have reached a tentative agreement to create a demilitarized buffer zone in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, a move that could help avert a fight and likely humanitarian catastrophe. After a meeting in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian host, President Vladimir Putin, said soldiers from the two countries would patrol the last major opposition stronghold—which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been eager to reconquer—to enforce its demilitarization.

Source: Wall Street Journal September 17, 2018 18:17 UTC