At a recent meeting of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces and National Intelligence Organization, the draft road map for the operation was already considered, and it was decided to start it "after the talks in Astana on September 13-15." Ankara expects that part of the province of Idlib will be transferred under the control of Turkey within the framework of the agreements on de-escalation zones. The main goal of the second stage of the Euphrates Shield operation is "a violation of US plans to give Idlib to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) "under the guise of combating the terrorist groups in Syria," TASS reported.
During the first phase of the Euphrates Shield Operation (late August 2016 - March 2017) the safe zone between the cities of Azaz and Jarablus was returned to opposition forces.
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