Moscow, SANA- Russian President’s Special Representative for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov affirmed on Thursday that Syria is a sovereign state and its leadership must be consulted in considering the possibility of deploying any forces on its territory.

“Syria is a sovereign state, it has leadership so of course it is necessary to hold consultations with it to have its approval,” Bogdanov told reporters when asked whether the presence of US troops in the de-escalation zones would be beneficial.

He added that it is too early to talk about this because of course we have to agree with the Syrian side to do all this firstly.

Bogdanov said that the boundaries of the de-escalation areas in Syria will be determined by the working groups formed after the Astana 4 meeting.

Manar/Mazen