PHOTO: The coordination of Syria’s opposition-rebel bloc, Riad Hijab


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People Are Still Starving to Death in Madaya


UPDATE 1725 GMT: Pro-opposition Orient News reports that the opposition-rebel bloc is sending its full delegation to the Geneva talks.

According to leading bloc official Assad al-Zubi, all 17 members of the negotiating team and other representatives will participate, following assurances of “support concerning the composition of the Interim Governing body and the delivery of aid to the besieged areas.”

Spokesman Riyad Naasan Agha repeated taht the opposition is going to Geneva to test the credibility of the international community in implementation of the UN Security Council resolution for an end to sieges, and to assess the Assad regime’s “ability to seriously conduct the negotiations”.


ORIGINAL ENTRY: Syria’s opposition-rebel bloc has belatedly joined talks in Geneva, but only to discuss the precondition of access to humanitarian aid for besieged areas.

After several days of discussion in Saudi Arabia, the Higher Negotiations Committee announced on Friday that it would send three people to talk about implementation of access to humanitarian aid for besieged areas, as mandated in UN resolutions including last month’s text unanimously approved by the Security Council.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said:

“The High Negotiations Committee (HNC) decided to participate in the Geneva talks after receiving American and United Nations guarantees….[We will] be in a position, probably Sunday, to actually start the discussions with them in order to be able to proceed with intra-Syrian talks.

The “peace talks” — brokered by the UN, Russia, and US — had nominally opened on Friday, but only with a meeting between de Mistura and the Assad regime delegation as everyone awaited a decision from the opposition-rebel bloc.

De Mistura also met a group of Syrian politicians backed by Russia and then some civil society activists.

The bloc had faced a political dilemma: either reject the talks and be blamed for their failure, or attend and give up the preconditions of ceasefires, release of detainees from regime prisons, and an end to the Syrian military’s sieges that have threatened hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

With the declaration that it is focusing on aid — with no commitment to negotiations with the Assad regime, which had already said that it will make no concessions — the opposition-rebel group had shifted the focus to one of its central issues, putting the onus on the UN and Damascus to respond.

The UN has been accused in recent weeks of abetting the Assad regime’s sieges, watering down documents and failing to challenges the refusal to allow aid. In 2015, the regime only accepted 10% of requests for access, refusing to give any answer at all to 75%.

UN officials responded earlier this week with a firm denunciation of all sieges and attention to the regime’s responsibility for deprivation and deaths, including the starvation of scores of people in the town of Madaya in Damascus Province.

Russia Proclaims “Constructive” Regime Approach

The Assad regime’s main ally Russia tried to gain some advantage out of Friday’s confusion and limited discussions.

Moscow’s Permanent Representative in Geneva, Alexey Borodavkin, asserted:

The arrival of the Syrian government delegation and its meeting with de Mistura is the main result of the first day of talks. It signals that the [Syrian] government has taken a constructive approach and will be constructive in seeking the achievement of positive results in the interests of the Syrian people.

He said the head of the regime delegation, Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari came over to the Russian mission “to synchronize watches” with us regarding the tactic of these indirect talks with mediation of Staffan de Mistura.”

Borodavkin also emphasized that Syrian Kurdish official must be involved in the talks.

The opposition-rebel bloc has said that it welcomes Kurdish participation but has refused any involvement by the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Party (PYD). Turkey, which says the PYD is a front for the Turkish insurgency PKK, has said that it will boycott any process including the group.

Russia included PYD leader Saleh Muslim and another Kurdish official in its list of 15 names for Geneva. Howedver, De Mistura backed away from an invitation to Muslim amid the Turkish objection.


Turkey: Another Violation of Airspace by Russian Warplane

Turkish officials claim another Russian warplane has violated its airspace, summoning the Russian ambassador to protest the incident.

“A Su-34 plane belonging to the Russian Federation air force violated Turkish airspace at 11:46 local time yesterday [Friday],” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

It called the violation a “concrete indication of Russian acts aiming to escalate problems” and warned Russia “will be held responsible for any dire consequences which can emerge from such irresponsible acts”.

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned Moscow would “face consequences if it continues such violations”.

On November 24, Turkish jets shot down a Russian SU-34 fighter, claiming that it had entered Turkey’s airspace en route to bombing Latakia Province in northwest Syria. The pilot was killed and a navigator was rescued by Syrian regime troops.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Saturday urged Russia “to act responsibility and to fully respect Nato airspace” and “take all necessary measures to ensure that such violations do not happen again”.


Video: Regime Fires on Displaced Persons Camps Near Turkish Border

Claimed footage of regime artillery and rocket fire on displaced persons camps in Latakia Province on Saturday:

The White Helmets civil defense organization said more than 60 rockets were fired on the Aubin camp near the Turkish border.


Activists: Member of Regime Delegation is Intelligence Officer Involved in War Crimes

Opposition activists have claimed a member of the regime delegation in the Geneva talks is a senior intelligence officer involved in war crimes.

Lieutenant Colonel Samer Breidi, head of the State Intelligence branch in the East Ghouta area near Damascus, is accused of involvement in violence to suppress peaceful protests from March 2011. Hundreds of people were allegedly detained and tortured to death.

State media names Breidi among the regime’s delegates.

BAREDI


The Failure of the Rebel “Unity Meeting” with Jabhat al-Nusra

More information is circulating about the recent “unity meeting”, with an uncertain outcome, between rebel factions and the jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra.

Rebel sources confirmed that Nusra head Abu Mohamad al-Joulani had offered concessions during a meeting spurred by regime-Russian-Iranian-Hezbollah offensives that have put pressure on rebels and al-Nusra in northwest Syria.

“Several insurgency sources” said Joulani had suggested in the meeting, held about 10 days ago, that he is willing to change the name of his group to put distance from its origins. Nusra was sent into Syria by the Islamic State in 2012, but broke from ISIS in early 2014.

However, sources differ on the extent of Nusra’s shift. The Reuters contacts said Joulani refused to cut ties with al-Qa’eda.

Earlier in the week, activists said the sides had agreed to pursue a system based on Sharia, rather than a secular State, but they added that political discussions were ongoing.

However, all agree that the immediate obstacle to a unity deal is the leading rebel faction Ahrar al-Sham, which is not ready to accept Nusra.

Days after the meeting, there was a clash between Ahrar and Nusra in two towns in Idlib Province, with several fighters killed on both sides, before a ceasefire was established.

An Ahrar commander said:

The problem is with the Qaeda link and its ideological implications. Nusra insists on its agenda, it doesn’t want to maneuver at all….[It is] damaging the revolution.”

“Nusra cannot work with others, they have a dominating project, they do not accept the others,” said an Ahrar fighter in Idlib Province.