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Regime’s Surprise Attacks Near Aleppo — Success or Failure?
Analysis: Revealing the US-Iran Talks on a “Political Solution” — Can They Succeed?

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has declared that the Assad regime is ready to accept his plan for a “freeze” to fighting in the divided city of Aleppo.

De Mistura said Tuesday, after he briefed the UN Security Council, “The government of Syria has indicated to me its willingness to halt all aerial bombing…and artillery shelling for a period of six weeks all over the city of Aleppo from a date which we will be announcing from Damascus.”

The envoy said that rebels will now asked to suspend attacks. He said, “[I have] no illusions but a glimmer of hope, bearing in mind that it is our duty to protect civilians wherever we can while we are still hoping to find a political solution”.

De Mistura met Assad in Damascus earlier this month. Last week, in a marked shift of the UN’s position, the envoy said that the President was part of the “political solution”, indicating that Assad would no longer be asked to step aside in a plan for a transitional governing authority.

Both the Revolutionary Command Council and the Sham Front, representing most of Syria’s rebels, rejected De Mistura’s acceptance of Assad and said they would no longer cooperate with the envoy.

Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, has been split since rebels took over areas in July 2012.


Syrian Civil Defense Worker Killed — 82nd in Conflict

Another “White Helmet” — the nickname for Syrian civil defense workers — has been killed, this time in northwest Syria:

Pro-Rebel Media: 15 Civilians, Including 9 Children and 3 Women, Killed in Regime Bombing

Pro-rebel media claim that barrel bombs killed six children in the village of al-Zafaraneh in northern Homs Province on Wednesday.

The Revolutionary Free Syria media office said nine civilians, including three children and three women, died in airstrikes on the village of al-Malikiyeh near Azaz, close to the Turkish border in northwest Syria.

Dramatic But Sketchy Claim “US To Equip ‘Moderate’ Rebels To Call in Airstrikes”

The Wall Street Journal posts a dramatic but sketchy claim, “U.S. to Give Some Syria Rebels Ability to Call Airstrikes“.

Unnamed “defense officials” said Washington has decided to provide pickup trucks equipped with machine guns and radios to some “moderate” rebels. However, there are no details, such as the location of the rebels and the projected American attacks.

The US has carried out an aerial assault on the Islamic State — and occasionally the “extremist” rebel faction Jabhat al-Nusra — since September; however, the Americans have never targeted the Assad regime, the focus of the rebel effort.

The officials said training of “moderate” rebels, supported by $500 million from Washington, will begin in mid-to-late March in Jordan, with a second site due to open soon after that in Turkey.

The uncertainty over the aim of the American effort is apparent in this section of the Journal’s report:

U.S. officials also don’t know whether American planes will be able to provide air support if the moderate forces it trains get in a fight not with Islamic State, but with forces loyal to the Syrian president.

Because the U.S. isn’t at war with Syria, U.S. military lawyers are wrestling with whether U.S. warplanes would have legal authorization to strike Mr. Assad’s forces, even to support a U.S.-trained rebel force.

Aside from the legal issues, officials said that, as a policy question, the White House hasn’t given a green light to supporting the rebels if they get into a battle with the Syrian military.

Regime Admits Shortages of Fuel and Water, Problems with Currency

State news agency SANA is filled with regime admissions on Tuesday of difficulties with fuel, water, and currency.

Chairing a Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said that “preserving the stability of the Syrian Pound is a main concern of the government, which is taking various steps to this effect”.

The official level of the Syrian Pound is now 250 to $1, compared to 50 to $1 before the uprising began in March 2011. The currency is far weaker in unofficial trading.

The Governor of the Central Bank, Adib Mayyaleh, assured reporters, “A number of steps have been taken and their effects will show soon.” He said the Bank would “not stand idle and intervene at the right time” against currency speculators and black-market rates.

Al-Halqi also called for measure to address shortages “to ensure that drinking water is available in all provinces during summer”.

Meanwhile Petroleum Minister Sleiman al-Abbas faced questions from the People’s Assembly about shortages of oil and rising prices, amid this winter’s subsidy cuts by the Government.

Abbas acknowledged that “fuel distribution was rationed in some provinces due to the lack of local crude oil production and the decrease in oil arriving at refineries”. He said that obtaining oil and petroleum products is a “large burden” because of the stalled production and sanctions.

The Minister told the Assembly that “raising fuel prices is inevitable”.

Defying a situation in which most of Syria’s oil and gas fields are occupied by the Islamic State, Abbas declared, “Plans for the investment of gas fields opposite the [Mediterranean] coast are underway.”