Turkey warns against Syrian regime offensive on Idlib

Turkey's Foreign Minister has warned against a possible Syrian government offensive on the last remaining opposition stronghold.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was in Moscow on Friday for talks with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, said that Russia and Turkey should work to separate opposition groups from "terrorists" in the northwestern province of Idlib.

He warned against an offensive there, saying that it will cause a "humanitarian catastrophe."

Lavrov, however, indicated that Moscow is losing patience with the militants, who often target government positions from there.

Russia is a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey supports some of the opposition groups along its border with Syria. Turkey, Russia and Iran have mediated cease-fire deals in several areas in Syria, including Idlib.

According to Reuters quoting a UN spokeswoman on Friday, Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura has invited Iran, Russia and Turkey to talks on Syria's Constitutional Committee, to be held in Geneva on Sept. 11-12.

The talks on forming a committee to draw up a new constitution for Syria are expected to be followed by parallel UN talks involving countries including the United States, but she had no date for those.