Revival of Syria ceasefire main topic of Lausanne talks

[Anthea]

War in Syria: Cessation of hostilities due to start at sunset

A cessation of hostilities is due to start in Syria at sunset on Monday, after a weekend of air strikes.

The 10-day truce is due to be followed by co-ordinated US-Russian air strikes against jihadist militants.

Syrian state media reported that President Bashar al-Assad welcomed the deal, which was reached late on Friday in Geneva after months of talks between Russia and the US.

But it is unclear whether rebel factions will abide by it.

The Free Syrian Army group has written to the United States administration saying that while it would "co-operate positively" with the ceasefire, it was concerned it would benefit the government.

Another rebel group, the influential hardline Islamist Ahrar al-Sham, has rejected deal.

"A rebellious people who have fought and suffered for six years cannot accept half-solutions," said its second-in-command, Ali al-Omar, in a video statement. But the group's commander stopped short of explicitly saying it would not abide by its terms.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-37335829

[Anthea]

US and Russia extend Syrian ceasefire by 48 hours

The UN has applauded the drop of violence since the ceasefire took effect on 12 September

This must be because the US and the coalition have stopped killing people
It certainly is not because ISIS have joined in the ceasefire

Kerry and Lavrov spoke over the phone on Wednesday (14 September) and agreed to extend the ceasefire, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner confirmed. "There was agreement that as a whole, despite sporadic reports of violence, the arrangement is holding, and violence is significantly lower in comparison with previous days and weeks," Toner said.

"This re-commitment will initially be for 48 hours, and, provided it holds, the US and Russia will discuss extensions, with the aim of achieving an indefinite extension to lower the violence," Toner added later, according to Reuters.

As part of the agreement, the US and Russia aim to reduce violence for a week straight before they begin coordinating military strikes against the Islamic State (Isis) and Nusra Front, ABC reported. The two countries also hope to get humanitarian aid to the besieged city of Aleppo.

According to Al Jazeera, the UN applauded the "significant drop in violence" on Tuesday (13 September). "Today, calm appears to have prevailed across Hama, latakia, Aleppo city and rural Aleppo and Idlib, with only some allegations of sporadic and geographically isolated incidents," Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, said in a news conference in Geneva.

"Source on the ground, which do matter, including inside Aleppo city, said the situation has dramatically improved with no air strikes," he added. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that no deaths resulting from violence had been reported during the first 48 hours of the ceasefire.

ABC reported that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the US and Russia to do more to guarantee humanitarian aid to besieged areas. "It's crucially important [that] the necessary security arrangements should be given so that they can be allowed to cross the lines," he said.

The secretary-general added: "I have been urging the Russian Government to make sure that they exercise influence on the Syrian Government, and also the American side to make sure that Syrian armed groups, they also fully cooperate."

Toner also noted that Moscow needed to use its influence over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid. "We haven't seen the humanitarian access yet so we're still continuing to assess this, talking to the Russians," he said. 'We're pressuring them to pressure the Assad regime."

The UN revealed that two aid convoys, consisting of about 20 trucks transporting mostly food and flour heading towards Aleppo, has been held up since crossing the Turkish border, Reuters reported. Mistura said the UN was waiting for Damascus to issue letters authorising the aid deliveries.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/syria-ceasefir ... ng-1581406

[Anthea]

Trucks of aid inching across border
Syrians protest, tired of war

Twenty trucks of aid that had been held up at the Turkey-Syria border for two days are making slow progress, the UN reported.

"The 20 trucks... have passed over the Turkish border, they are in the buffer zone between the Turkish and Syrian border," the head of the United Nations humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, told reporters.

"They've been waiting and sleeping at the border now for 48 hours. So they could go on a minute's notice," he added.

The aid in the trucks, mainly flour and food, is expected to be delivered to eastern Aleppo.

A key part of the cease-fire agreement, which was brokered by the United States and Russia was the opening of channels for humanitarian access. However, within hours of the ceasefire coming into effect, disagreements over aid began.

The trucks were stalled at the border after Damascus stated it would not allow any aid to come from Turkey, which it accuses of arming Islamist groups in the country.

“We could go today. We're not. . . . The permits have not been given," Egeland told Washington Post reporters in Geneva.

The Syrian Army has begun to withdraw from Castello Road in Aleppo, according to Xinhua News, in order to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to rebel-held neighbourhoods of the city under the ceasefire between government and opposition forces.

Although heavy military units have begun to leave, a small number of soldiers stayed behind, standing by the Syrian army's positions until they have been completely passed on to Russian forces.

Their withdrawal is expected to continue while UN-backed humanitarian convoys are anticipated to enter the city on Friday by way of Castello Road.

With military personal withdrawing and officials wrangling over logistics citizens took to the streets in protest of the five year civil war.

"I think both sides, the opposition and regime, are tired of this war and want to have a break,” Abu Yaman, a father of four in Damascus, told the New York Times.

According to Modar Shekho, a nurse in Aleppo who filmed demonstrations in her city, they are lacking the basic necessities for day-to-day living.

“Here this demonstration is against the [international] aid from Castello Road,” Sherkho explained. According to her, the demonstrators say they do not need the aid being provided. What they want is oil, medical supplies, and for the road out of Aleppo to be opened.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/150920163

[Anthea]

Syria war: Rebels 'regrouping' under ceasefire - Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Syrian rebel groups are exploiting the current ceasefire to regroup.

He said the US, which backs some rebel groups, was more focused on retaining their military capacity than separating moderate and militant groups, a stated aim of the truce which began on Monday.

Mr Putin also urged Washington to make the ceasefire agreement public.

There are growing tensions between the two major powers over the rebels' role and delays in providing aid.

Separately footage has emerged of Free Syrian Army rebels expelling US special forces from the town of Al-Rai in northern Syria, calling them "infidels" in Arabic.

The Pentagon said on Friday that dozens of US troops had been deployed to the border with Turkey at Ankara's request, to fight so-called Islamic State (IS) militants.

In televised remarks during a visit to Kyrgyzstan, Mr Putin said Moscow was keeping to its obligations under the Syrian truce, and the Syrian government was "fully abiding" by the agreement.

But he said that the US seemed to be trying to keep the rebels' military capability in its conflict with the government, adding that this was a "dangerous path".

"What we're seeing now is not the separation of the terrorists from the healthy part of the opposition but an attempt by these terrorists to regroup," he said.

Previously Moscow has threatened to resume air strikes on "moderate" rebel groups if this separation did not happen.

Mr Putin added that he could not understand why the US had not shared details of the ceasefire agreement with the UN Security Council.

A meeting of the Council scheduled for Friday was cancelled at the last minute as a result.

The Russian president said Moscow would disclose nothing without US consent, adding that he was "more positive than negative" about a UN resolution being agreed.

The US has voiced concern about delays in providing humanitarian aid to Aleppo and other besieged areas.

Breaches of the truce by Syrian troops and rebel groups have also been reported.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-37395807

[Anthea]

Syria conflict: US air strikes 'kill dozens of government troops'

The US-led coalition has admitted its planes carried out an attack in eastern Syria that the Russian army says killed at least 62 Syrian troops fighting ISIS

The US said its planes halted the attack in Deir al-Zour when informed of the Syrian presence and would not knowingly strike them.

The strikes allowed IS jihadists to advance, the Russians said.

Russia earlier said the current ceasefire in Syria was in danger of collapse and the US would be to blame.

The cessation of hostilities does not include attacks by the US on ISIS or other jihadist groups.

The US Central Command statement said the coalition believed it was attacking positions of so-called Islamic State and the raids were "halted immediately when coalition officials were informed by Russian officials that it was possible the personnel and vehicles targeted were part of the Syrian military".

It said the "Combined Air Operations Center had earlier informed Russian counterparts of the upcoming strike".

It added: "Syria is a complex situation with various military forces and militias in close proximity, but coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit. The coalition will review this strike and the circumstances surrounding it to see if any lessons can be learned."

Russia's defence ministry earlier said that if the US air strikes did turn out to be an error, it would be because of Washington's stubborn refusal to co-ordinate military action with Moscow.

Only if the current ceasefire - which began on Monday - holds for seven days, will the US and Russia begin co-ordinated action against the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham group, which was previously known as the al-Nusra Front, and IS.

The Russian defence ministry quoted a statement by Syrian army general command as saying that the four coalition air strikes on Syrian troops had allowed IS to advance.

Russia said it was calling an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the US air strikes.

The Russian foreign ministry said the attack had jeopardised the US-Russia agreement on Syria.

The Syrian statement said that the air strikes were "conclusive evidence" that the US and its allies supported the jihadist group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group put the death toll at at least 80.

There have been no confirmed cases of US air strikes targeting Syrian troops. Last December, Syria accused the coalition of attacking a government army camp in Deir al-Zour but the US denied it.

'Repeated messages'

Earlier, Russia's military expressed fears for the ceasefire. It said rebel groups had increased attacks and it urged the US to act or be responsible for the collapse of the truce.

Russian General Vladimir Savchenko said "the situation in Syria is worsening", with 55 rebel attacks over the past 24 hours, leading to the deaths of 12 civilians.

Gen Viktor Poznikhir said Russia, an ally of the Syrian government, was doing all it could to rein in Syrian troops.

"If the American side does not take the necessary measures to carry out its obligations... a breakdown of the ceasefire will be on the United States," he said.

"The United States and the so-called moderate groups they control have not met a single obligation they assumed in the framework of the Geneva agreement."

The terms require moderate rebel groups to separate themselves from jihadists.

Gen Poznikhir said: "Our repeated messages to the American side are left without a response. There is doubt that the US is able to influence the moderate opposition they control."

A US National Security Council spokesman later said: "While there have been challenges on both sides, violence is considerably lower and the cessation is broadly holding.

"What we're not seeing is humanitarian aid getting through and it will be hard to build confidence on the ground until that occurs."

Some 20 trucks have been waiting since Monday for safe passage from Turkey into Syria and on to rebel-held east Aleppo.

Truce's days may be numbered - BBC's James Longman, Beirut

This was meant to be a trust-building exercise, but nearly a week after the truce began, the blame game has begun.

There was deep scepticism from the rebels about details in the plan which called for their separation from extremist groups. That is why they never formally accepted the deal.

It was always a major sticking point. Were US backed groups supposed to surrender territory to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham? Or were they required to fight them? It was never clear. Either way, the stipulation would leave them far weaker on the battlefield. But refusing and standing in the way of much-needed humanitarian aid would not have been popular.

Now this weekend, the main rebel groups are due to meet to discuss their position. Their mistrust of the government and its Russian allies runs deep. They see the obstruction of aid deliveries on the border as a stalling tactic, and one which they have seen before.

If aid doesn't reach besieged areas soon, the ceasefire's days are numbered. And co-ordinated strikes against IS won't happen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-37398721

[Anthea]

Australian warplanes took part in airstrikes that killed Syrian troops

Australia has said its warplanes took part in US-led airstrikes in eastern Syria that mistakenly killed Syrian army troops in an incident threatening to wreck an already tenuous ceasefire before it is a week old.

Russia’s military said it was told by the Syrian army that at least 62 soldiers were killed in the attack on a government position near Deir ez-Zour, with more than 100 wounded. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 90 soldiers were killed.

The first airstrikes on Aleppo since the ceasefire began on Monday evening were reported on Sunday.

An Australian defence department statement said its jets had targeted what had been thought to be Islamic State (Isis) fighters. “Overnight, coalition aircraft were conducting airstrikes in eastern Syria against what was believed to be a Daesh [Isis] fighting position that the coalition had been tracking for some time,” the statement said.

“However, shortly after the bombing commenced, Russian officials advised the Combined Air Operations Centre that the targets may have been Syrian military personnel.”

“While Syria remains a dynamic and complex operating environment, Australia would never intentionally target a known Syrian military unit or actively support Daesh,” the statement said, offering condolences to the families of the dead and pledging to cooperate with a US inquiry.

The US has also offered condolences and insisted that the airstrikes were a mistake. It said it had targeted Tharda mountain where a Syrian government offensive was seeking to capture Isis positions overlooking the Deir ez-Zour military airport.

Damascus claimed it had succeeded in taking Tharda despite the US bombing, and rejected Washington’s insistence that it had hit Syrian troops in error. A foreign ministry statement said that Syrian positions had been repeatedly attacked in strikes that were “on purpose and planned in advance”.

Russia has warned that the incident puts a “very big question mark” over the future of a precarious ceasefire agreed by Washington and Moscow, and a strongly worded foreign ministry statement on Sunday said that the strikes were “on the boundary between criminal negligence and direct connivance with Islamic State terrorists”.

It said the incident was a result of Washington’s “stubborn refusal” to cooperate with Moscow in fighting Isis, the Nusra Front – now renamed Jabhat Fateh al Sham – and “other terrorist groups”.

The Russian foreign ministry statement also described US explanations at an emergency UN security council session on Saturday night as an “an unconstructive and indistinct position”.

US officials “not only turned out to be unable to give an adequate explanation of what happened, but also tried, as is their custom, to turn everything upside down”, the statement said.

The two nations clashed at the United Nations over the bombing when the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, described Russia’s call for an emergency closed-door security council meeting over the incident as “uniquely cynical and hypocritical”. She said Russia had for years blocked UN punitive measures against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad for the barrel bombing of civilian populations in rebel-held cities.

“Since 2011, the Assad regime has been intentionally striking civilian targets with horrifying, predictable regularity ... And yet in the face of none of these atrocities has Russia expressed outrage, nor has it demanded investigations, nor has it ever called for a Saturday night emergency consultation in the security council,” she said.

After the meeting went ahead, the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, declared that in his decades as a diplomat he had “never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness as we are witnessing today”.

He said that if Power’s actions were any indication of Washington’s possible reaction then the ceasefire agreement is “in serious trouble” but expressed hope the US would convince Moscow it was serious about finding a political solution in Syria and about fighting terrorism.

Churkin said the timing of the US airstrikes was “frankly suspicious” as it came two days before the US and Russia were supposed under the ceasefire agreement to begin joint planning for air operations against Isis and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/ ... sis-russia

[Anthea]

US-Russian plan to end Syria’s conflict must be saved: Lavrov

The US-Russian plan to end the five-year conflict in Syria “must be saved as there is no alternative”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the UN on Friday.

Lavrov’s statement comes as the Syrian northern city of Aleppo endured a day of heavy airstrikes.

The Syrian regime’s military forces intensified their operations in Aleppo in a bid to retake rebel-held areas.

A seven-day US-Russian brokered truce collapsed on Monday. Lavrov blamed the United States for “failing to control the rebel groups” it backs.

According to the Russian FM, one of the key conditions of the truce was for US-bakced moderate rebel groups to separate themselves from radical Islamists.

“Unfortunately the coalition led by the United States, which committed itself to make sure that this separation happens, has not been able to do this,” Lavrov said.

“It is now essential to prevent a disruption of the [US-Russia] agreements,” he said.

In the meantime, the US Secretary of State John Kerry said he had met his Russian counterpart Lavrov earlier in the day and that there was “a little bit of progress” on resolving differences on Syria.

“We’re evaluating some mutual ideas in a constructive way, period,” Kerry said.

Anthea: Evaluate this - the coalition bombs are killing more innocent Syrians than ISIS

http://aranews.net/2016/09/us-russian-p ... ed-lavrov/

[Anthea]

US wants to distract attention from coalition strike on Syria troops

The US and its Western partners are trying to steer the world’s attention away from their airstrikes on the Syrian Army by accusing Russia of attacking a UN humanitarian convoy outside Aleppo, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian television.

“I would like to emphasize that the Americans and their Western allies, for one thing, want to distract public attention from what had happened in Deir ez-Zor,” Lavrov told NTV on Monday following an urgent session of the UN Security Council.

On September 17, a Syrian Army unit was hit by US-led coalition aircraft near the city of Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria, resulting in 62 troops being killed and many more being injured. Syrian officials later said the attacks lasted about an hour and had been visibly “intentional.” The Russian Defense Ministry said that the aircraft which carried out the airstrike had entered Syrian airspace from Iraq.

Two days later, an aid convoy consisting of 31 lorries was attacked while heading to Aleppo. According to the Red Cross, 20 civilians and one aid worker died as a result. Initial reports by the organization claimed the convoy had been targeted by an airstrike.

The US was quick to blame Russia and Syria for the attack, demanding that both countries’ air forces operating in the area be grounded immediately. Moscow said that there were no military flights over the area at that time.

“When the humanitarian convoy was hit [outside Aleppo], we demanded that an investigation be conducted. [US Secretary of State] John Kerry, a good partner of mine, behaved in a way he never has done previously.”

He claimed that the investigation might take place, but they know who did it, namely the Syrian Army or Russia, and that it was Russia's fault in any case,” Lavrov said.

Kerry appeared to be “pinned down by stark criticism from the American military apparatus,” Lavrov noted, which may indicate that the US military does not comply with its commander-in-chief’s orders.

“[President] Barack Obama always supported, as I was told, cooperation with Russia, and he confirmed it himself during the meeting with [President] Vladimir Putin in China. It seems to me that the military may not be obeying their supreme commander too much.”

Lavrov went on to say that Washington is still trying to point the finger at Russia and hold it accountable for what is happening in Syria. Such an approach is counterproductive and leaves Moscow wary of the US-led coalition’s actions, the FM said, adding that now he cannot “100 percent trust” the US and the coalition.

Moscow will push for a detailed investigation into the attack on the convoy, the minister added.

The US and the West are not fulfilling their obligations on combating Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Lavrov said.

“It’s clear that the West, led by the US, which runs the anti-IS coalition and, as they put it, Al-Nusra Front in Syria, do not meet their obligations.”

The foreign minister stated in conclusion that the US-led coalition “hits only ISIS targets and does not engage Al-Nusra at all.”

Anthea: I have NEVER heard of the coalition bombing Al Nusra

“Every time I meet Kerry, he assures me that Al-Nusra is the same terrorist threat as Islamic State. But they do not hit [Al-Nusra].”

The widening rift between the leading world powers is likely to endanger any hopes of a revived truce in Syria. Some third parties believe that the ceasefire has been severely disrupted. Martin Schaefer, spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry, told journalists on Monday: “We have to take into account that US-Russia agreement that we welcomed last week is at least temporarily suspended.”

https://www.rt.com/news/360615-us-lavro ... -distract/

[Anthea]

Revival of Syria ceasefire to be main topic of Lausanne talks

Reinstating a ceasefire in Syria will be the main topic of international talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Saturday,

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “The main topic will be the discussion of prospects for a Syrian settlement with emphasis on the necessity to renew the ceasefire regime on the basis of the agreements reached by Russia and the US on September 9 in Geneva,” Sputnik quoted Zakharova as saying Thursday.

All participants have to take on obligations and work with the sides on the ground to ensure full adherence to the rules of the ceasefire, she said.

Russia is open to cooperation with both global and regional partners in fighting terrorism and settling the Syrian crisis politically, she added.