Opposition steps back from Sochi talks after Russia does not contain Assad regime

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Russia has pledged to back a ceasefire in the East Ghouta area near Syria’s capital Damascus, only for pro-Assad attacks to continue on Saturday.

Russia made the commitment at political talks in Vienna, according to an opposition spokesman on Friday.

Despite a de-escalation zone agreed between Moscow’s officials and rebels in the autumn, the Assad regime has continued bombing and shelling of almost 400,000 residents in an attempt to overrun the area, held by the opposition since 2012. It has also tightened a five-year siege, threatening civilians with malnutrition and causing deaths from treatable medical conditions, and has used chlorine weapons on two occasions since January 13.

“There was a Russian pledge to the negotiating team….It will begin at 12, after midnight today,” Ayman al-Asemi, a member of the Free Syrian Army’s military council, said.

But local sources say this morning that attacks are continuing. Noor and Alaa, two children who have made a series of video statements highlighting the assaults and siege, tweeted:

Mohammed Alloush, a senior member of the Jaish al-Islam rebel faction, wrote, “Russia failed in practically applying the truce declared last night in East Ghouta. “Elephant” missiles still pounding East Ghouta. [They]couldn’t stop shooting for even ten minutes.”

Alloush questioned Russia could convene its long-delayed “national congress” in the southern Russian city of Sochi, scheduled for next week, in light of the Assad regime’s refusal to abide by Moscow’s commitments.

Opposition Will Not Attend Russia’s Sochi Talks

The opposition says it will not attend the Sochi talks, amid widespread resistance inside Syria to any particpation in Russia’s initiative.

An opposition spokesman said on Saturday that the meeting is an attempt by Moscow to “sideline” the UN’s attempt at resolution through years of discussions in Geneva.

Members of the opposition’s High Negotiations Committee met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow earlier this week. However, a series of opposition groups and rebel factions objected to any involvement, citing Russia’s failure to put any pressure on the Assad regime and Bashar al-Assad’s refusal to step aside in any settlement. Protests in opposition-held areas on Friday reinforced the challenge.

Opposition spokesman Yahya al-Aridi said at the end of two days of discussions in Vienna:

This whole round…was supposed to be a crucial one, a test for commitment. And we didn’t see this commitment. And the UN didn’t see this commitment.

It’s quite clear that somebody there is obstructing the whole process and wanting to sideline the importance of Geneva, the political process as a whole.

The head of the regime delegation, Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Ja’afari, rejected a document for “a specific and immediate focus on discussion of a reformed constitution and organization of free and fair elections.”

The document was prepared by the US, Jordan, Britain, France. and Saudi Arabia for the host of the Vienna talks, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura.

Ja’afari asserted:

Our people have not and will never accept a solution that is parachuted onto them or that is carried on tank.

TThe goal of the conference in Sochi is to engage in a national intra-Syrian dialogue without foreign interference. The conference will be attended by about 1,600 participants who will reflect the various components of Syrian society.

De Mistura said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will decide how the organization will now respond to the invitation to attend Sochi.

Video: State Department Slips, Says Kurdish Militia YPG is Turkish Insurgency PKK

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert slips and says the Kurdish militia YPG, which has been armed by the US, is “PKK”, the Turkish Kurdish insurgency listed by the US as a terrorist group:

Resisting pressure from Ankara, the US has tried to maintain a distinction between the YPG — the leading element in the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces — and the PKK, which has fought Turkish security forces for more than 30 years.

CIA Says PYD and YPG Are Part of PKK

The CIA has written that the Syrian Kurdistan Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its YPG militia are part of the PKK.

The entry in the Syria section of the CIA’s “World Factbook” reads:

“

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) (Kongra-Gel):

Aim(s): establish Kurdistan, which comprises territory in northern Syria

Area(s) of operation: operational in the north combating ISIL [ISIS], primarily in the Kurdish-populated region known as Rojava and Syrian Kurdistan

Salih MUSLIM Muhammad leads Kurdistan Workers Party’s Syrian wing, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD); majority of fighters inside Syria are Syrian Kurds, along with Kurds from Iran, Turkey, and Iraq

Turkey PM to US: “Why Are You Doing This?”

Turkey, whose offensive alongside Syrian rebels against the YPG is entering its second week in northwest Syria, maintained its criticism of the US on Friday.

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said at a meeting in Istanbul:

We tell them, “You are our ally, why are you doing this [supporting the YPG]?”…And the answer they give is that this does not stem from a choice but rather a necessity [to fight ISIS]….

But then a big country like the US has a huge army and potential, so is it a country that is need of a vile terrorist organization? How will it give an account for this?

The spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, İbrahim Kalın, declared that US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster pledged Washington will no longer give weapons to the YPG.

Kalın said he received the promise in a phone call, in which the two side agreed to close coordination to prevent misunderstandings.

Earlier this week, Ankara said Erdoğan received a similar promise from Donald Trump. However, the White House made no reference to such a comment and instead emphasized that Turkey should limit its offensive.

On the battlefield in the Kurdish canton of Afrin on Saturday, the Turkish-rebel force took a hilltop near the town of Raju, northwest of Afrin city (see map):