RUSSIA/SYRIA/TERRORISM/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Kremlin dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning to Syria not to launch an offensive in the rebel-held enclave of Idlib, saying on Tuesday [9-4-18] that the area was a ‘nest of terrorism’. Trump on Monday [9-3-18] warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Iran and Russia not to ‘recklessly attack’ the northwestern Syrian province, saying hundreds of thousands of people could be killed…The presence of militants in Idlib was undermining the Syrian peace process and making the region a base for attacks on Russian forces in Syria, Peskov added…Russia resumed air strikes against insurgents in Idlib province on Tuesday after a hiatus of several weeks, according to a Syrian rebel and a war monitor. A source has told Reuters that Assad is preparing a phased offensive to regain the province. The situation around Idlib will be one of the main items on the agenda when the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey meet in Tehran this week, Peskov told reporters on a conference call, declining to elaborate further.”
–Reuters Staff, “Kremlin Dismisses Trump Warning on Syria’s Idlib,” The New York Times online, September 4, 2018