LATEST: Truce Talks “Fail Completely” in Damascus Suburb of Darayya
In a rare public speech, Syria’s President Assad has blamed the Islamic State on foreign intervention, while trying to bolster activists in his Baath Party.
Speaking in Damascus, Assad addressed senior members of the party from Tartous in western Syria on Thursday.
The President declared:
[The Islamic State] has not emerged out of thin air. ISIS was the outcome of the accumulation of wrong-headed policies by parties involved in the war against Syria who have supported, armed and funded terrorist and takfiri organizations to undermine Syria and strike Syrians’ unity.
He said Syrian armed forces continue to repel terrorist organizations and put forward his solution of “national reconciliations”, i.e., acceptance by insurgents of local cease-fires like those in some areas near Damascus.
Rallying the audience, Assad asserted:
The unfolding crisis in Syria has shown the importance of al-Baath Party as an ideological party that is open to all, placing extra responsibility on it, especially that part of what we are living today is an intellectual, exclusionist warfare that needs to be confronted by thought, not only by battling terrorists on the ground.
He said that the party would meet “the political awareness of citizens”, fostered by the 44-month conflict, through a “dialogue that generates ideas, cements bases, and prepares leadership cadres”.
Truce Talks “Fail Completely” in Damascus Suburb of Darayya
A regime effort at an insurgent ceasefire in the Damascus suburb of Darayya has “failed completely”, according to Aya Diranieh, an activist with the Syrian Revolution Coordinators.
The opposition has controlled Darayya, southwest of Damascus, for more than two years despite regime bombardments, ground assaults, and at least two mass killings of civilians.
Aya Diranieh said the regime sent the Mufti of Outer Damascus to negotiate with insurgents three months ago, but “the regime didn’t respond — either yes or no” to the conditions put by the opposition.
These included the release of about 180 women and children from detention, permission for young men to leave Darayya, and acceptance of insurgents retaining “light and medium weapons”.
The activist said the area’s population has dropped to 66,000 from the pre-war figure of about 300,000. “International aid never reached Darayya”, and education is “virtually nonexistent” with most schools destroyed and a lack of teachers.
State Media on Insurgent Advance in Southwest: “They Have Israel’s Support”
Is this a sign of concern from State media about the insurgency’s advance in Quneitra Province in southwest Syria?
In its daily declaration of the successes of “large-scale military operations” against “terrorists”, State news agency SANA asserts, “Army units carried out operations against positions of terrorist organizations in Quneitra province, killing large numbers of terrorists and destroying their vehicles.”
Of course, SANA does not refer to the latest advances of insurgents, who have taken several villages this week and moved on the Syrian army’s last major positions in the province at Baath City and Khan Arnabeh.
However, the agency appears to wobble with the declaration, “Terrorist organizations, including Jabhat al-Nusra, are active in al-Quneitra countryside, working hand in glove with the Israel from which they receive logistic support.”
