PHOTO: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (right) shakes hands with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, December 20, 2016

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UPDATE 0900 GMT: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has reinforced the Erdoğan Government’s pressure on the US, repeating the well-supported claim that the US has provided weapons to the Kurdish militia YPG.

Çavuşoğlu linked his complaint to Ankara’s line that Washington has stood aside from the Turkish-rebel offensive which has taken territory from the Islamic State in northern Aleppo Province since late August. The offensive has had difficulty in its month-long attempt to take ISIS’s key position of al-Bab, northeast of Aleppo city, with the Islamic State repelling attacks and killing at least 16 Turkish troops as well as destroying armored vehicles.

The coalition which the U.S. is in, has not been giving aerial support to our Euphrates Shield operation since a particular timeframe. The US is providing arms to the YPG and [the Kurdistan Democartic Union Party] PYD, period.

President Erdoğan, in a speech on Tuesday, accused the US of arming both the Islamic State as well as YPG. The former claim has no evidence, but the US has backed the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces in their offensives against ISIS since October 2015.

Despite the evidence of connections with the YPG, the US Embassy in Turkey denied all of Erdoğan’s assertions in a statement on Wednesday.

Çavuşoğlu said today:

[The US Embassy] also know very well that the U.S. is providing arms to the YPG especially for their fight against ISIS and we know it very well. We have documents in our hands and everyone in the world knows it.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Rebels have denied a Turkish claim that a “ceasefire is close” in Syria’s 69-month conflict, saying they have not even seen the proposal.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday that Ankara and Russia had nearly brokered the agreement, amid their developing co-operation that recently struck a deal over much of northern Syria:

We are still working on it. It could be put into place at any moment. It’s about expanding the cease-fire. We are also working for a negotiated political solution….

There are two texts ready on a solution in Syria. One is about a political resolution and the other is about a ceasefire. They can be implemented any time.

However, a range of rebel factions — including Faylaq al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sham, and the Free Syrian Army — said they had not been given the text.

A senior official of the rebel faction Ahrar al-Sham raised the specific objection of any reoccupation by the Assad regime of remaining opposition areas near Damascus.

Munir al-Sayal said:

Discussions are ongoing, with Turkish sponsorship, but the Russian enemy is trying to exclude the Eastern Ghouta [area near] Damascus from any attempt towards a comprehensive ceasefire in Syria that would be accepted by the revolution’s factions.

It’s premature to talk about chances of success. The Russian enemy still has no clear position and repeats the regime’s demands.

The Kremlin said it could not comment on the ceasefire report.

“I cannot answer that question right now,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “I don’t have sufficient information.”

Turkey’s High-Profile Moves

Cavusoglu’s statement was the latest in a series of high-profile moves by Turkey. On Tuesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tried to define forthcoming negotiations in Kazakhstan, declared by Ankara and Moscow, seeking to bring together representatives of the Asssd regime and Syrian opposition.

Erdoğan said that “terrorists” must not be allowed at the table, a likely reference to the Syrian Kurdistan Democratic Party (PYD). He backed up the statement — and the exclusion of the US from the recent Turkish-Russian maneuvers — with the claim that Washington had armed both the Islamic State and the YPG, the Kurdish militia overseen by the PYD.

See Syria Daily, Dec 28: Turkey Stakes Out Its Position on Talks, Challenges US Over Kurds

Turkey has been in talks with rebel factions in Ankara; however, rebel officials said they had rejected suggestions of a ceasefire because they only covered part of Syria and did not include all factions.

Riad Hijab, the head of the opposition High Negotiations Committee, reaffirmed on Wednesday “in response to queries” that a truce must be comprehensive, stopping attacks across Syria and allowing access to humanitarian aid in all areas.

Since the summer, the Turkish-Russian reconciliation led to an arrangement in which Ankara accepted the reoccupation by pro-Assad forces of all of Aleppo city, while Moscow acceded to a Turkish military intervention alongside rebels claiming much of Aleppo Province from the Islamic State and drawing a line against the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

Will Assad Remain in Power?

Cavusoglu maintained on Wednesday that President Assad must leave power: “The whole world knows it is not possible for there to be a political transition with Assad, and we also all know that it is impossible for these people to unite around Assad.”

A “senior Turkish government official” was not as firm, however:

We put importance on the establishment of a transitional government and that it would be one that meets the demands of the Syrian people. Whether or not Assad will take place in the government will be discussed in the coming period.

And the leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, declared:

In the near future, [Turkey] will…sit around the same table with al-Assad under Russia’s auspices. Turkey will cooperate with al-Assad against ISIL [the Islamic State] in Raqqa, al-Bab, and elsewhere. They will shake hands with al-Assad.

They went to Moscow willy-nilly and signed the agreement [on Syria]. Now, they will also go to Astana [in Kazakhstan] and sign another agreement. It has become clear that the only leader in our region is Russia. That’s why I call this “worst defeat ever in our foreign policy”.

Video Confirms Regime Attack Disrupting Damascus Water Supply

Video confirming regime barrel-bombing of the al-Fija facility, northwest of Damascus (see map), providing 60% of the capital’s water supply:

Since last week, the regime has bombed and shelled the Wadi Barada pocket of 13 villages and about 100,000 people. A ground offensive is hoping to overrun the area after the opposition rejected a capitulation agreement.

The regime tried to cover up the assault with the claim that rebels “poisoned” the water supply with diesel fuel. However, photographs and videos have documented the damage to the al-Fija facility, sending an overflow of water into the streets (see Wednesday’s Syria Daily).