Discussions uncertain of progress after regime walkout from Geneva negotiations

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Russia, Turkey, and Iran host their latest set of talks on Syria’s crisis on Thursday.

The discussions are the eighth round in the Kazakh capital Astana since January. The Assad regime will send a delegation, and some opposition groups will be present.

However, the talks were sidelined as a political process last week by the regime’s walkout from UN-supported negotiations in Geneva. The regime delegation refused direct contact with the opposition, and any discussion of governance, a new Constitution, and elections. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura — now being denounced by the regime — said the Assad representatives added “a new surprising and disturbing condition” that the regime must have “full territorial control” of Syria and an end to all “terrorists” before any progress can be made.

See Syria Daily, Dec 20: UN Envoy Criticizes Regime for Collapsing Geneva Talks

Russia has used the talks to proclaim “de-escalation zones” throughout Syria. However, pro-Assad forces have continued offensives in some of the zones, including in the northwest and in the south near Damascus, and Russian warplanes have supported some of the attacks.

Hundreds of people have been killed since September in the East Ghouta area near the capital. Almost 400,000 residents are at threat of malnutrition because of a tightening siege by the Assad regime. At least 15 people have died in recent weeks because the regime refused their evacuation to hospitals.

Civilians have also been slain in opposition territory in the northwest. On Wednesday, at least 19 people were slain in airstrikes by Russian warplanes on a town in Idlib Province.

The Russian Defense Ministry insisted, “The Russian Aerospace Force planes did not conduct flights in the specified area.”

Deputy FM to Kurdish-Led Force: “You Are Another ISIS”

The Assad regime has continued its threats against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, warning of a war to eliminate them if they do not disband.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Al-Mikdad put out the latest challenge in an interview with Iran’s Al-Alam News:

There is another Da’esh [Islamic State] called the Syrian Democratic Forces and the U.S. is trying to support them against the will of the Syrian people.

They cannot be trusted because they are forces serving the Americans and serving the plans of the West against the Syrian people and state….

The Syrian Democratic Forces must give up and rejoin the Syrian Arab Republic, else they will share the same fate as Da’esh, Jabhat al-Nusra, and other terrorist groups.

On Monday, Bashar al-Assad pointed to an imminent showdown with the US-backed SDF, created in autumn 2015 to fight the Islamic State in northern and eastern Syria:

All those who work under the command of any foreign country in their own country and against their army and people are traitors, quite simply, regardless of their names, and that is our evaluation of the groups that work for the Americans in Syria.

See Syria Daily, Dec 19: Assad Points to Battle With Kurdish “Traitors”

Since its creation, SDF has taken much of the ISIS-held territory in the north and east of Syria, including cities such as Raqqa and oil and gas fields. The advance this year, combined with pro-Assad offensives, has brought the two sides next to each other in areas such as Deir ez-Zor Province on the Iraqi border.