LATEST: Despite Insurgent Efforts for Ceasefire, Fighting Spreads Between Syrian Revolutionary Front & Jabhat al-Nusra

Sharply rising prices for heating oil and diesel fuel, food, and other essentials. Falling business for traders. Difficulties paying rent.

This is a snapshot of life in Damascus after 43 months of the Syrian crisis, offered by Diaa Hadid of the Associated Press.

This month, the government raised the subsidized price of diesel fuel from 36 cents to 48 cents a liter and of heating oil went from 73 cents a liter to 85 cents.

Those prices may appear modest compared to those in Western countries, but they come in a country where salaries are far lower: most civil servants and soldiers are paid around $100 a month.

And the underlying situation offers the prospect of more shocks. Regime oil production has fallen more than 95%, from 360,000 barrels per day to 16,000. US bombing of the Islamic State, which has taken most of Syria’s oilfields, has tightened the squeeze — despite their opposition to the Syrian regime, the jihadists have allegedly sold about $1 billion of oil to Damascus.

This month’s rising price for fuel set out inflationary ripples through the economy. The price of a loaf of unsubsidized bread has risen to 97 cents from 85 cents —– more than four times the 21-cent price before the crisis. Milk, at 30 cents in March 2011, rose to $1.13 from $1.

“We are hearing there’s unimaginable prices for the winter,” said a clothing vendor. “We have been through struggles before, but not like this.”

The hope for the Assad regime lies in more assistance from Russia and Iran.

Analysts say Tehran, which propped up Damascus with a $3.6 billion line of credit in July 2013, will be asked for more to finance oil purchases, cover other expenses, and keep the Syrian currency from collapsing. Russia will be asked for fuel and wheat.


Despite Insurgent Efforts for Ceasefire, Fighting Spreads Between Syrian Revolutionary Front & Jabhat al-Nusra

Efforts by insurgent factions to maintain a ceasefire (see below) have not prevented the spread of fighting between the Syrian Revolutionary Front and Jabhat al-Nusra in Idlib Province.

Sources say the clashes have reached Kafranbel, known for its Friday opposition protests, and other villages.

Residents demanding an end to the fighting — they are calling for the SRF to retreat to Deir Simbl and Jabhat al-Nusra to Maarat al-Num’an, with the insurgent “peace corps” establishing a zone between the two sides:

SYRIA PROTEST ANTI IN-FIGHTING

Insurgents Form “Peace Corps” To Prevent Further In-Fighting Between Factions

Mohammad Alloush, a senior figure in the Islamic Front, has announced the formation of a “peace corps” of insurgent brigades to prevent further fighting between the Syrian Revolutionary Front and Jabhat al-Nusra in Idlib Province in northwest Syria.

An Islamic Front position guarding an area between the SRF and Jabhat al-Nusra:

ISLAMIC FRONT IDLIB

The SRF and elements of Jabhat al-Nusra clashed in a town in the province earlier this week, taking attention away from the insurgency’s offensive against the Syrian regime near and in Idlib city. There was also trouble when the Harakat Hazm brigade tried to block Jabhat al-Nusra reinforcements.

The SRF and Jabhat al-Nusra blamed each other for starting the fight, while other brigades and senior Jabhat al-Nusra leaders called for a ceasefire and submission of disputes to Sharia courts.

See Syria Special: Amid Its Offensive in the Northwest, Why Are Insurgents Fighting Among Themselves?

Claim: Saudi Jets Collecting Intelligence on Regime-Controlled Areas

A prominent Syrian activist on social media makes a provocative claim about Saudi intelligence missions — the aircraft are supposed to be part of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State, but are pursuing another task:

UN Report: 15,000 Foreign Fighters from 80+ Countries in Syria

The report of a UN committee estimates that 15,000 foreign fighters, from more than 80 countries, have been involved in the Syrian conflict.

A Security Council committee that monitors Al Qa’eda concluded, “Numbers since 2010 are now many times the size of the cumulative numbers of foreign terrorist fighters between 1990 and 2010 — and are growing.”

The report did not name the scores of countries but cites instances such as “foreign terrorist fighters from France, the Russian Federation and and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland operating together”.

The Evolution of a New Legal System in Syria?

Writing for Foreign Policy, Maxwell Martin outlines an important aspect of the challenge to the Assad regime — the development of an alternative system for justice:

In Syria’s rebel-controlled areas, a nascent legal system has emerged to solve crimes and settle disputes between citizens. This court system has grown increasingly sophisticated -=- particularly in the north, which has become a stronghold for rebels not aligned with the Islamic State. However, the courts remain divided, despite the emergence of a consensus around the implementation of their rulings. Their various approaches to justice reflect an evolving debate within the opposition over the religious identity of Syrian society and the type of laws that should govern it, both during the war and into the future.

UN Envoy De Mistura: “I Have An Action Plan to Freeze Conflict in Certain Areas”

The UN envoy on Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told the Security Council on Thursday that he has an “action plan” to freeze conflict in selected areas, possibly starting with the country’s largest city Aleppo, to further humanitarian aid and a political process for a wider peace.

De Mistura, after a recent visit to Syria and the region, said the “horrific trigger” of the Islamic State’s offensive provided an opportunity for another approach for resolution of the 43-month conflict.

“I don’t have at this stage a peace plan, which would be presumptuous,” the envoy told reporters. “I do have an action plan.”

De Mistura did not give details on how the “incremental freezes” would work. Instead, he focused on the halt to the Islamic State’s advances:

Daesh is to be stopped.

How? Well, by…seeing whether we can implement some incremental freeze zones, in order to make sure that in those areas, we will be able to build first a political process at the local level and then eventually the national level. Give hope to the local population and avoid a fight which is going on at the moment and, actually, which is giving advantage to Daesh.

He said Aleppo, divided between regime and insurgent forces since July 2012, could be a symbol “which we hope can become the opportunity of showing that somewhere in Syria, just because everybody feels there are other priorities, and rightly so, in the terrorism threat, there can be some areas that show that some improvement can take place”.