ALEPPO — Since mid-September, the Syrian government has been leading a large-scale military operation against opposition factions to expel them from areas under their control south of the international M4 highway connecting Aleppo and Latakia.

The efforts are seemingly aimed at restoring commercial traffic on this vital road, which has become a priority as the government grapples with an economic crisis.

On Sept. 21, the Syrian newspaper Al-Watan, which is close to the Syrian government, quoted sources following up on the situation in Idlib, in northwest Syria, as saying, “The Syrian army and Russia have strong cards capable of forcing the [Turkish] regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan to review the bad [decisions] its has taken to deescalate the situation.”

The sources said that “the circumstances are now appropriate to impose a comprehensive settlement in Idlib, at least in the area south of the M4 highway. Such a settlement would require the withdrawal of terrorists from it to its northern side and to a depth of six kilometers in preparation for opening it [the road]." The source criticized the Turkish government  for failing to secure Russian-Turkish joint patrols along the road and for not cracking down on terrorism in the area.