Syrian’s foreign minister said on Thursday, that government forces will “go all the way” in the northern region of Idlib and that Damascus’s main targets were al-Nusra militants.

Minister Walid al-Moualem, speaking after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergie Lavrov in Moscow, also said Syria would not use chemical weapons in any offensive and that it did not have such weapons. Syria would try to avoid civilian deaths, he added.

Earlier on Thursday, the UN’s Syria peace envoy offered to travel to Idlib to help ensure civilians can leave through a humanitarian corridor amid fears of an imminent government offensive to retake the last major region controlled by rebels.

Reuters