Secretary of State Tillerson: “What we discussed today are options that are available to us. They are difficult options.”


LATEST

FRIDAY FEATURE

Trump Administration — Syria’s Assad Can Stay in Power


Amid a series of challenges in Syria’s conflict, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and high-level officials in Ankara on Thursday.

The discussions offered little public insight into the positions of either the US or Turkey, which announced on Wednesday that its offensive alongside rebels in northern Syria had ended — despite Erdoğan’s repeated declarations that it would advance on territory held by the Islamic State and by the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

See Syria Daily, March 30: Turkey Halting Its Offensive in North?

Tillerson avoided the issue of the Turkish opposition to the SDF, led by the Kurdish militia YPG. Ankara considers the militia and its political leaders of the Syrian Kurdistan Democratic Party (PYD) to be part of the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK.

The US and Russia intervened earlier this month to prevent a Turkish-rebel advance on the SDF-held city of Manbij in eastern Aleppo Province, putting in supplies and troops — in an implicit co-operation with the Assad regime as well as the PYD/YPG — for a buffer zone.

There are also signs that, after months of political dispute, the Pentagon has decided to back the SDF’s offensive on Raqqa, the Islamic State’s central position in Syria. Last weekend, after the US put in additional armor and special forces and stepped up airstrikes, the SDF took Tabqa Airbase, about 40 km (25 miles) from Raqqa. US strikes also damaged the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates River, raising fears of its collapse, as the SDF occupied the northern part of the 4.5-km (2.8-mile) dam.

Tillerson insisted that there is “no space” between Turkey and the US in their determination to defeat Islamic State. He also spoke of “stabilization zones”, a term used by President Donald Trump without any definition in US policy or operations so far.

“What we discussed today are options that are available to us. They are difficult options. Let me be very frank, it’s not easy, they are difficult choices that have to be made,” Tillerson told a joint news conference alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Cavusoglu said Washington accepted there was no difference between the YPG militia and the PKK. Tillerson condemned recent PKK attacks in Turkey but went no further. He said only:

Those [the inclusion of PYD/YPG in the Raqqa operations] were the subjects of our conversations today. We have exchanged views on the best way to secure areas inside of Syria to allow the safe return of people to Syria and to set the stage for a long-term political solution.

There was also little reference to the core political issues in the conflict, including the Assad regime and its future against the opposition and Syrian rebels, despite Tillerson’s indication of a major shift in US policy with the acceptance of President Assad in power: “[His future] will be decided by the Syrian people.”

The US has been sidelined since autumn 2016 as Turkey reconciled with Russia. The two countries, joined by Iran, brokered the resumption of indirect negotiations between the regime and opposition from late January, although these have made no progress.

TOP PHOTO: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday


Number of Registered Refugees Passes 5 Million

The number of registered Syrian refugees has passed 5 million.

The UN’s refugee agency recorded 5,020,470 refugees as of March 23. Almost half are under the age of 18.

Almost three million Syrians are registered in Turkey. About one million are in Lebanon and 657,000 in Jordan, although both governments said the true number is far higher — Jordan’s officials claim 1.3 million.

Another 6.3 million Syrians are displaced inside the country.


Journalist Kareem Files Sues Trump Over Inclusion on US “Kill List”

Journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem of On the Ground News, prominent for reporting from opposition areas of northern Syria, has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over his apparent inclusion on a US “kill list”.

Kareem has narrowly escaped death from several airstrikes over the past two years.

Kareem and Ahmad Zaidan, the former Islamabad bureau chief of Al Jazeera, filed the lawsuit on Thursday in US District Court in Washington. The document says that the men were erroneously placed on the “kill list” during the Obama Administration and that Donald Trump has loosened some of the safeguards the previous administration placed on the program.


Pro-Assad Forces Continue Pushback of Rebel Offensive in Northern Hama

Pro-Assad forces have continued to reclaim territory lost in this month’s rebel offensive in northern Hama Province.

The latest counter-attack has taken the area around the village of Khattab as rebels withdrew. The advance opens up the rest of the rebel gains to regime assault, assisted by intense airstrikes.

Rebels had advanced as close as 5 km (3 miles) from Hama city with the quick capture of about 25 towns and villages across northern Hama. However, the offensive was weakened by the exclusion of the leading faction Ahrar al-Sham, amid its dispute with the Islamist bloc Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. Other factions backed by Turkey also did not participate.


Video: Construction of Camp for Displaced from al-Wa’er

Footage of camp construction for those people who have been forcibly removed from al-Wa’er in Homs city this month:

Approximately 4,000 rebels, their families, and other civilians have been moved to Jarablus on the Syrian-Turkish border, following a capitulation agreement for the last opposition district in Homs. Some of the displaced have complained of finding poor conditions upon their arrival (see Thursday’s Syria Daily).


Opposition Condemns Russian Airstrikes With “Dozens of Casualties”

The Syrian opposition has denounced Russia for airstrikes killing and wounding dozens of civilians in Idlib Province in northwest Syria.

The Syrian National Coalition said in a statement that Moscow “committed yet a new barbarous crime” with the bombing of the town of Deir Sharqi, east of Maarat al-Num’an. Most of the casualties were internally displaced people.

Earlier this week, the opposition met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov and called on Russia to observe a ceasefire and press the Assad regime to do so.

Despite declaring a nominal ceasefire on December 30, alongside Turkey and Iran, Russia has continued aerial attacks on opposition territory.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights said on Thursday that Russia is continuing to use internationally-banned cluster munitions in the strikes on Idlib Province.