PHOTO: The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura


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The UN’s envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has told the Security Council that he can no longer count on its “ambiguous” resolutions for a political resolution.

De Mistura’s remarks to a closed-door Council session on Monday began circulating last night on the Internet. Issued only a month after the latest Council resolution, they confirm the doubts that opposition-regime talks, which international powers have scheduled for January 25 in Geneva, will take place.

As an immediate obstacle, the envoy cites both disagreement over the substance of the discussions and the list of those who can represent the opposition.

Last month a 33-member opposition-rebel negotiating team was established at a conference in Riyadh. Russia and Iran, backing the Assad regime, have insisted that certain rebel factions must be excluded as “terrorist”. Kurdish groups have objected that they were not involved.

Trying to block the opposition-rebel movement, Moscow has issued an alternative list of 15 names of domestic figures and Kurdish representatives.

De Mistura also pointed to the UN’s failure to fulfil its resolution for an end to sieges on civilians. He notes that the UN has reached only 4% of the areas, and that the Assad regime did not answer 80 of 113 requests made for access in 2015.

Referring to the UN’s call for ceasefires, the envoy proposes no substantive steps towards “monitoring, verification and reporting”, merely saying, “To move fast in the event of a cessation of hostilities or, better still, a ceasefire, we will also need to draw upon the expertise, skills and contributions of the international community”:

What I am now asking for is acts of good will which demonstrate seriousness about this process. The success of Syrian and non-Syrian actors in meeting this minimum, but significant step, will be a small indication as to whether the talks stand a chance to be meaningful for those who suffer on the ground– not just another gathering in Geneva.

De Mistura concludes with a hint that the January 25 discussions will not occur and may not be rescheduled: “Talks are important to keep the ‘Vienna momentum’ [international discussions in November-December], but not at any cost.”


Western Intelligence: Russia Asked Assad to Step Down

The Financial Times, citing “two senior western intelligence officials”, claims that Russia asked President Assad to step aside in December.

The newspaper claims the Colonel-General Igor Sergun, the director of the GRU military intelligence agency, traveled to Damascus with President Vladimir Putin’s message to Assad to give up power.

A Kremlin spokesman denied the report. However, a “Russian authority on Syria who is involved in Moscow’s diplomacy” said:

It has become quite clear that part of an eventual political solution is that Assad has to step aside at some point, although we don’t think that it has been decided yet when that should be.

Ever since President Assad was flown in to be received by our president last year, his attitude has been less than satisfactory, and this does interfere with our efforts towards a political solution.


Casualties from Russian Airstrikes on Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing

Reports are circulating of 10 people killed and 30 wounded by Russian airstrikes on the Bab al-Hawa crossing in northwest Syria on the Turkish border. Graphic photos of slain children have been posted.

BAB AL-HAWA ATTACK 21-01-16

BAB AL-HAWA ATTACK 21-01-16 2


Reports: Russian Military Moves Into Airbase in Eastern Syria — Competition or Co-operation with US?

The New York Times supports claims that Russia is moving into an airbase in northeastern Syria, close to another base which has been taken over by the US for operations.

A fighter said the Russian military, moving into the base near the city of Qamishli, is recruiting men from Deir ez-Zor Province, including from groups with whom the US worked in its failed “train-and-equip” program for Syria’s rebels.

The fighter indicated that the contacts were with elements of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, including in a meeting in the town of Tal Abyad near the Turkish border: “We were really surprised to meet a Russian delegation in our headquarters.”

He said, that as his group had previously been supported by Ahmed al-Jarba — a former head of the Syrian National Council, close to Saudi Arabia — the meeting raised thoughts that the Saudis and Russia had a secret understanding.

The account backs reports from the opposition Local Coordination Committees Russian military personnel have been deployed at the Qamishli airport, and that Russian officials met with both regime officials and Kurdish militia leaders to discuss deployment in the city.

The US has been shifting its support from other rebel factions to the SDF, established in October 2015 and advancing against the Islamic State in northern Syria. Recently it established a new base in Hasakah Province for special forces and supplies to the effort.

Two Pentagon officials confirmed the Russian deployment, but they maintained that Moscow is not focused on directly involvement with fighters in the same locations as the Americans.

“I’m not sure I’d characterize it as providing support to the same people as we are,” General Joseph F. Dunford, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.

The fighter quoted by the New York Times also said the Russians had offered his tribe, the Sheitat, weapons and assistance to reclaim their home area in Deir ez=Zor from ISIS, who executed hundreds of members of the tribe last year.

The plan was suspended when the Russians asked for 300 fighters and only 200 could be mustered. The fighter suggested that the effort would have had little impact as the Islamic State tries to take all of Deir ez-Zor city from the Assad regime.

Regime supporters are also asserting from a “field source” that about 50 Russian Marines have deployed at the regime’s Kweiris airbase, east of Aleppo city.

A long-standing ISIS siege on the base was relieved in October by the Syrian military, supported by intense Russian bombing.


Report: 2 Regime Generals Killed in Islamic State’s Offensive on Deir ez-Zor

A pro-regime activist says that two regime generals, Major General Samer Ameen and Brigadier General Habib Ali Habib, were killed on Thursday in the Islamic State’s offensive in Deir ez-Zor city in northeastern Syria.

ISIS launched the offensive on Tuesday to claim regime districts in the northwest Deir ez-Zor. The militants have taken a weapons depot and parts of a military base and the Ayyash and al-Bughayliyah districts. Fighting is continuing, including near the regime-held Deir ez-Zor airport to the east of the city.


Deir ez-Zor Residents Trapped by Both Islamic State and Assad Regime

More testimony has been posted from residents of Deir ez-Zor city of the Islamic State’s siege, compounded by the refusal of the Syrian military to allow their departure.

More than 200,000 people are in regime areas of the divided city, in which heavy fighting has taken this week as the Islamic State tries to seize neighborhoods in the northwest.

Residents claim that regime authorities have limited food supplies, with merchants — allegedly linked to the regime’s officials — exploiting the situation for the profits from soaring prices.

An activist claims that 26 people have died from lack of food and medicine.

See also Syria Feature: Deir ez-Zor’s Civilians Besieged by Both Islamic State and Regime

Electricity has been cut off since March 2015. Butane gas tanks are exhuasted, so wood is being used for fuel. Scarcity of chlorine is leading to unpotable water.

One resident, saying he has lost 20 kg (44 lbs) summarizes:

For several days my children have had nothing except a can of sardines, four loaves of bread, and one kilogram of potatoes. They are looking like ghosts, and their skin is turning yellow.

I don’t care, I can withstand hunger. What hurts me is hearing the moaning of my three children. I cannot bear hearing that.


Claim: Regime Issues Arrest Warrants for Opposition-Rebel Negotiators

The opposition website Zaman al-Wasl claims that regime security services have issued arrests warrants for most of the opposition-rebel negotiating team for the “peace talks” in Geneva on January 25.

The site says two warrants have been issued for the team’s head, Brigadier General Assad al-Zoubi of the Southern Front.

Warrants are also circulating for the senior negotiator Mohammad Alloush of the Jaish al-Islam rebel faction, and for team members George Sabra, Haitham al-Maleh, Abdulbaset al-Taweel, Suhair Atassi, Mohammad Nazir al-Hakim, Basma Kodmani, and Mohammad Burhan Attour.