MOSCOW — Russia’s Syria envoy has made assurances that a large-scale operation in Syria’s Idlib is not on the table.

"I’d rather refrain from speaking about the city’s storming or a pending operation. There are too many rumors and they are unfounded. Any large-scale operation in Idlib is out of the question," Russia’s TASS news agency quoted Alexander Lavrentiev as saying July 31, following the 10th gathering of the Astana group in the southern Russian city of Sochi.

“We still hope that both the moderate opposition and our Turkish partners who assumed commitments on stabilizing this area will eventually manage this,” Lavrentiev added.

In recent weeks, concerns about an imminent massive fight over Idlib have been rising in light of the bellicose rhetoric coming from Damascus and ongoing military preparations. Out of the four de-escalation zones, Idlib is the last one that remains outside of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s control. Under the Astana agreements, Turkey was entitled to provide security for the area, and it has already erected at least 12 observation points.