Boost for talks backed by Russia and Turkey as opposition groups consent to send delegation to press for ceasefire

The Syrian opposition says it will attend peace talks sponsored by Turkey and Russia in Kazakhstan next week, in a key step in the latest attempt to end the six-year civil war in Syria.

It is set to decide the makeup of its delegation on Monday. The negotiations in Astana will bring together representatives of the opposition and the regime of Bashar al-Assad, as well Russia, Turkey and Iran. Donald Trump’s incoming administration has also been invited.

The talks, which are expected to begin on 23 January, come weeks into a ceasefire negotiated by Ankara and Moscow that has largely held across the country. The opposition’s High Negotiations Committee said it would back the talks, and Mohammed Alloush, its lead negotiator, confirmed that a delegation would be attending.

Syria ceasefire appears to hold after rivals sign Russia-backed deal Read more

“All the rebel groups are going to Astana. Everyone has agreed,” said Alloush, a leading figure in the Jaish al-Islam rebel group, in an interview with AFP. “Astana is a process to end the bloodletting by the regime and its allies. We want to end this series of crimes.”

A senior Turkish official said the opposition was committed to the talks. “As we get ready for the Astana talks, we are trying our best to make sure that the ceasefire holds, and so we’re talking to the Russians to keep the regime in check, because most of the violations so far have been made by the regime in certain parts of Syria,” said İbrahim Kalın, a spokesman for the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “But we are also talking to the opposition to remain committed to the Astana process, and they’ve been very helpful and cooperative so far.”

The talks are the first serious effort in months to put a stop to the carnage in Syria, which has killed nearly half a million people, displaced half its population and left much of the country in ruins.

Russia, whose intervention was crucial in rescuing the Assad regime and turning the tide of the war in its favour, and Turkey, a stalwart backer of the opposition, normalised their relations last summer. That rapprochement bore fruit in December when the two nations brokered a ceasefire in the city of Aleppo, allowing the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians who were besieged in a shrinking patch of rebel-held territory.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mohammed Alloush. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters

Now both are pushing the peace talks, with Moscow working to anchor its position as a global superpower and limit the costs of its intervention in the war, and Ankara hoping to stem an influx of refugees, 2 million of whom have fled to Turkey.

The opposition’s participation is a boost to the talks, but key issues remain that could derail them, including disagreements over the future of Assad, the shape of a transitional government, and rivalries within both camps – particularly the competing interests of Russia and the other key backer of the Syrian regime, Iran.

Although the talks are being launched without any preconditions, the rebels are keen to demand that Assad is ousted, and that a transitional government is appointed, a key sticking point that Assad’s representatives will not agree to without significant pressure. The regime has been emboldened by recent battlefield victories that have left the opposition without any major urban centres under its control.

“Our position on Assad is clear,” said Kalin. “We don’t believe that a united, peaceful Syria will be possible with Assad remaining in power. But as I said, we will see how Astana talks go. We want to go step by step at this point.”

Osama Abu Zeid, an opposition negotiator and a legal adviser to the Free Syrian Army, told the Guardian the talks in Astana had a limited aim – to ensure that the ceasefire continues.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Osama Abu Zaid, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army rebel alliance. Photograph: Umit Bektas/Reuters

“The participation in Astana is supported by all the factions and the High Negotiations Committee, and we want through it to reaffirm the ceasefire,” he said. “We decided to go to Astana primarily to reaffirm the ceasefire after the Russians promised to look into practical ways to enforce it.”

He added: “There won’t be political negotiations, so we have created a military delegation [for the Astana talks].”

Abu Zeid said the first round of talks would be short and will help determine whether the Russians were serious about putting a halt to all the fighting in the country, particularly in areas besieged by the Assad regime. If the first round succeeds, the opposition was prepared to proceed to a second round of discussions, he said.

Some rebel groups have refused to attend the talks, saying they do not believe the Russians are honest brokers.

“We have decided not to attend these negotiations because we still doubt the seriousness of the Russians and their ability to instil an atmosphere conducive to a political solution,” said Bassam Mustafa, a member of the political office of Noureddine al-Zinki, a rebel group influential in Aleppo and its countryside, who cited numerous ceasefire violations by the regime and its allied militias.

Still, sources with knowledge of the negotiations have said they could not have succeeded without Moscow’s dogged insistence in the face of objections by Tehran, which appears to be less willing to compromise on Assad’s fate.

A source with knowledge of the Aleppo negotiations in December said the Russians often worked around the clock to ensure their success, and made sure that fighters leaving the city in private cars during the evacuation were not hindered. Their intervention prevented a final assault by the regime and its militias on the rebel enclave, the source added.

Iran repopulates Syria with Shia Muslims to help tighten regime's control Read more

Meanwhile, the Iranians raised additional issues to derail the evacuation, presenting what one rebel official at the time described as a “Christmas list” of demands that included the full evacuation of two Shia villages besieged by fighters linked to al-Qaida.

“This perennial ambiguity of the Iranians always pops up in these talks and negotiations,” said one official. “The Russians I think are more pragmatic when it comes to the future of Assad. Iranians seem to have a more ideological commitment to him staying.”

Tehran has deployed thousands of Shia militia fighters from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon in an effort to shore up the regime and to maintain a supply route through the country and into neighboring Lebanon, where Iran’s proxy Hezbollah holds sway. Much of the rhetoric of the militias’ leaders in publicly available recordings has sectarian undertones, and the Islamic Republic is seeking to cement its influence in a regional tussle with its Sunni rivals, Saudi Arabia and its allies.

The Iranians have also been accused of abetting demographic change in Syria, reportedly clearing areas reclaimed by the regime from their Sunni inhabitants and settling Shia residents there instead.</s>Syrian opposition groups have decided to attend peace talks backed by Turkey and Russia in Kazakhstan to press for implementation of a widely violated ceasefire, opposition officials said on Monday, in a boost for Moscow-led diplomacy.

 

 Russia, the Assad Regime's most powerful ally, set the new diplomatic effort in motion after the Syrian opposition suffered a major defeat last month when it lost the opposition-held districts of eastern Aleppo.

 

 Opposition groups took the decision at meetings that are underway in Ankara, and are now working to form a delegation that will be different to one sent to peace talks in Geneva last year by a Saudi-backed opposition group.

 

 The talks are scheduled for Jan. 23 in Astana.

 

 "The factions will go and the first thing they will discuss will be the matter of the ceasefire and the violations by the regime," said an official in a Free Syrian Army opposition group who declined to be identified because the groups had yet to appoint a spokesman.

 

 A second official, Zakaria Malahifji of the Fastaqim opposition group, said: "The majority of the groups decided to attend. Discussions will be on the ceasefire - the humanitarian issues - aid deliveries, release of detainees."

 

 Turkey has been a major backer of the opposition groups against the Assad regime, but its priorities in Syria appear to have shifted away from toppling Assad towards combating PYD/YPG terrorists and Daesh in areas of northern Syria near its border.

 

 The Saudi-backed opposition body, the High Negotiations Committee, said on Saturday that it had supported efforts towards the planned peace talks in Kazakhstan, and viewed the meeting as a preliminary step for resuming the next round of political negotiations in Geneva.

 

 The HNC, formed in Riyadh in December 2015, includes both political and armed opponents of Assad.

 

 Malahifji said the new delegation would be formed in coordination with the HNC, but it would differ from it because "the Russians are focusing very much on the military factions".</s>Syrian rebel groups have decided to attend peace talks backed by Russia and Turkey in Kazakhstan to press for full implementation of a ceasefire they say has been widely violated by the government and its Iranian-backed allies.

Russia, President Bashar al-Assad’s most powerful ally, set the new diplomatic effort in motion after Syrian rebels suffered a major defeat last month by losing control of districts of eastern Aleppo they had held for nearly four years. The United States, which led failed efforts to launch peace talks last year, has not been involved in the latest diplomacy.

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Assad has already said his government is ready to attend the talks. After winning ground with Russian and Iranian military support, he looks stronger than at any point in the war. The rebels took the decision at meetings underway in Ankara, and are now working to form a delegation that will be headed by Mohammad Alloush, the head of the political office of Jaish al-Islam rebel group, Alloush told Reuters. He said the rebels were going to Astana to “neutralise the criminal role” of Iran.

Analysts believe the rebels have been under pressure from Turkey, one of their main sponsors, to attend. Earlier this month, they called off any talks on their participation in the Astana meeting over what they said were government violations of a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey.

Turkey’s priorities in Syria appear to have shifted away from toppling Assad towards combating Kurdish groups and Islamic State in areas of northern Syria near its border. Its ties with Russia have also improved in recent months.

“The factions will go and the first thing they will discuss will be the matter of the ceasefire and the violations by the regime,” said an official in a Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group who declined to be identified because the groups had yet to appoint a spokesman. “This will be a test for the Russians as the guarantor,” he said.

A second official, Zakaria Malahifji of the Fastaqim rebel group, said: “The majority of the groups decided to attend. Discussions will be on the ceasefire – the humanitarian issues – aid deliveries, release of detainees.”

The rebel groups would reject any discussion of broader political issues at the Astana talks, the rebel officials said.

The talks are scheduled for Jan. 23 in Astana. Turkey’s foreign minister said on Saturday that Ankara and Moscow had decided to invite the United States to attend. A Kremlin spokesman did not confirm that on Monday. On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed preparations for the talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu and Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

As with last year’s peace talks, powerful Kurdish groups that control wide areas of northern Syria are being excluded from the talks in line with the wishes of Turkey.

Fighting has continued despite the ceasefire, notably near Damascus where government forces backed by Lebanon’s Hezbollah are trying to recapture a rebel-held area where the capital’s main water supply has been bombed out of service. Separately, Islamic State, excluded from both truce and talks, has launched its fiercest assault in a year against a besieged government enclave in the city of Deir al-Zor.

The rebel groups that will attend the talks include FSA factions fighting in northern Syria, some of them the groups defeated in Aleppo. Alloush’s faction, Jaish al-Islam, is one of the bigger rebel groups, with a strong presence in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus.

The delegation will be different to one sent to peace talks in Geneva last year by the main opposition council, the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee. The HNC, which includes political and armed opposition groups, represented the opposition in peace talks last year.

Alloush sits on the HNC, which said on Saturday that it had supported efforts towards the talks in Kazakhstan, and viewed the meeting as a preliminary step for resuming the next round of political negotiations in Geneva.

Malahifji said the new delegation would be formed in coordination with the HNC, but it would differ from it because “the Russians are focusing very much on the military factions”.

Assad said last week his government was ready to negotiate on “everything” in Kazakhstan, including his own position within the Syrian constitution.</s>AMMAN — Syrian rebel negotiator Mohammad Alloush said on Monday he would head the rebel delegation to the peace talks backed by Russia and Turkey in Kazakhastan, saying this was to “neutralize the criminal role “ of Iran in the Syrian conflict.

Alloush, a former senior negotiator with the Higher Negotiations Committee during past rounds of UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva, said their participation was needed to hold back Iran’s militias fighting in Syria.

The talks, beginning on Jan. 23 in the Kazakh capital Astana, are set to build on a nationwide truce that has largely held despite escalating violence across several battlefronts in recent days.

If the Astana meetings are successful, they could augur well for fresh UN-hosted negotiations on the conflict next month in Geneva. “All the rebel groups are going (to Astana). Everyone has agreed,” said Alloush.

“Astana is a process to end the bloodletting by the regime and its allies. We want to end this series of crimes,” he said.

Ahmad Al-Othman from the Sultan Murad faction also told AFP that “the rebel groups have decided to go to the talks.”

Sources from the opposition and the regime said the talks would “probably” be face-to-face.

Several rounds of peace talks held by the United Nations have failed to produce a political solution to the conflict.

Ahmad Ramadan, from the leading National Coalition opposition group, said the Astana talks would aim to reinforce the truce “while the details of the political process will be left to Geneva.”

“Despite all the truce violations, what pushed us to agree to attend was the fact that the agenda will be focused on the ceasefire only,” said Osama Abu Zeid, a legal adviser to rebel groups.

The opposition’s delegation to Astana “will be only military,” but would be consulting with “a team of legal and political advisers” from the High Negotiations Committee, he said.

The HNC is the main umbrella group for Syria’s opposition factions, negotiating on their behalf last year in Geneva.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has been invited to take part, but has not yet officially responded.

More than 310,000 people have been killed and millions have fled their homes since protests erupted against Assad’s rule in the spring of 2011.

Over the years, the conflict has also witnessed the rise to prominence of terror groups like Daesh.

Daesh on Monday pressed their brutal offensive around the key eastern city of Deir Ezzor.

“IS (Daesh) has resorted to heavy use of infiltrators and on huge reinforcements from Raqa and western parts of Deir Ezzor province,” the source said.

Around 200,000 people live in Deir Ezzor city, which has been besieged by Daesh since early 2015 and is the capital of the oil-rich province of the same name.</s>Delegation of opposition factions to attend next week's meeting but others, including Ahrar al-Sham, will not join in.

Some of the armed Syrian opposition groups have decided to attend peace talks with the government next week in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, according to rebel officials.

The discussions, scheduled for January 23, intend to build on a nationwide ceasefire that has largely held despite escalating violence across several battlefronts in recent days.

Mohammad Alloush, a leading figure in the Jaish al-Islam group, said on Monday he would head the rebel delegation to the meeting. He said the rebels were going to the talks to "neutralise the criminal role" of Iran in Syria's conflict.

"All the rebel groups are going (to Astana). Everyone has agreed," Alloush told AFP news agency.



"Astana is a process to end the bloodletting by the regime and its allies. We want to end this series of crimes."

The rebel factions' decision to send a delegation to the Astana talks came after five days of negotiations in Turkey's capital, Ankara. The High Negotiations Committee, Syria's main opposition bloc, had also said previously that it would extend its support to an anti-government military delegation attending the talks.

But opposition news website Shaam Network reported on Monday that a number of other rebel groups, including Ahrar al-Sham, one of the main fighting forces on the ground, had decided to stay away from the upcoming talks.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has already said his government is ready to attend the Astana meeting and "discuss everything".

Yet, the participating factions said on Monday the talks will only focus on reinforcing the current truce and look at humanitarian issues - but a possible political solution to the crisis will not be on the agenda.

Zakaria Malahifji, of the Fastaqim rebel group, said: "The majority of the groups decided to attend. Discussions will be on the ceasefire [and] the humanitarian issues - aid deliveries, release of detainees."

The Astana meeting is organised by Russia and Turkey - two countries that have backed opposing sides of Syria's conflict for years but have worked closely in recent weeks to end the bloodshed.

An official in a Free Syrian Army rebel group that agreed to participate in the talks told Reuters news agency on Monday the meeting would "be a test for the Russians as the guarantor". He declined to be identified because the rebel groups had yet to appoint a spokesman.

If the Astana meetings are successful, they could bode well for fresh United Nations-hosted negotiations on the conflict next month in Switzerland's Geneva.

Several rounds of peace talks held by the UN have failed to produce a political solution to the conflict.

READ MORE: Civilian deaths reported in shelling near Syria's Damascus

The truce, which began in Syria on December 30 to pave the way for the new peace talks, excludes the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which changed its name from al-Nusra Front after breaking ties with al-Qaeda last year.

Russia, Assad's most powerful ally, set the new diplomatic effort in motion after Syrian rebels suffered a major defeat last month by losing the rebel-held districts of eastern Aleppo.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey's foreign minister said on Saturday that Ankara and Moscow had decided to invite the United States to attend the Astana meeting. A Kremlin spokesman did not confirm that on Monday.

As with last year's peace talks, powerful Kurdish groups that control wide areas of northern Syria are being excluded from the talks in line with the wishes of Turkey.

Syria has been ravaged by violence since widespread protests in March 2011 calling for Assad's ouster.

More than 310,000 people have been killed and over half the population has been forced to flee.</s>Kazakhstan says ready for Syria talks in Astana on Jan 23 - RIA

MOSCOW, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan is fully ready to hold talks on Syria in its capital Astana on Jan. 23, Russia's RIA news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov.

Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most powerful ally, pushed for peace talks in Astana after Assad's forces won a major victory in eastern Aleppo.

The Astana talks are also backed by Turkey. The United States, which led failed efforts to launch peace talks last year, has not been directly involved in the latest diplomacy. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Writing by Alexander Winning)</s>MOSCOW: Kazakhstan is fully ready to hold talks on Syria in its capital Astana on Jan. 23, Russia's RIA news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov.

Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most powerful ally, pushed for peace talks in Astana after Assad's forces won a major victory in eastern Aleppo.

The Astana talks are also backed by Turkey. The United States, which led failed efforts to launch peace talks last year, has not been directly involved in the latest diplomacy.</s>Syrian rebels have decided to attend peace talks in Kazakhstan that are backed by Russia and Turkey, rebel officials said.

The officials said on January 16 that the decision to attend the talks -- which are scheduled for January 23 in Astana, the Kazakh capital -- was made during ongoing meetings in Ankara.

"The majority of the groups decided to attend," said Zakaria Malahifji of the Fastaqim rebel group. "Discussions will be on the cease-fire, the humanitarian issues -- aid deliveries, release of detainees," Malahifji added.

An official in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group said rebel representatives want to press for implementation of a widely violated cease-fire.

"The factions will go and the first thing they will discuss will be the matter of the cease-fire and the violations by the regime," said the official, who declined to be identified because the FSA -- a loose alliance of several moderate rebel factions -- had yet to appoint a spokesperson.

On December 29, Moscow announced that Russia and Turkey brokered a nationwide cease-fire agreement between the Syrian government and opponents. Moscow also said that the sides had expressed willingness to begin peace talks.

While the United States was notably excluded from the process, Russian authorities have said that Russia, Turkey, and Iran will attend the talks in Astana, adding Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan could eventually join as well.

Sean Spicer, who is to be White House spokesman after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20, has said that the Russian ambassador to Washington invited the United States to take part in the talks during a telephone conversation in late December with Trump's incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on January 16 that he could not confirm that the Trump administration had been invited.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and TASS</s>Syrian rebel negotiators announced Saturday their support of Russia-Turkey brokered talks aimed at finding a political solution to the nearly six-year-long conflict in Syria, but they say a planned meeting this month in Kazakhstan should be seen only as a first step toward the resumption of the long-stalled U.N.-backed Geneva peace process. The Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee, which has been shut out of the Russian-Turkish talks process, said in a statement that it backed a military delegation, which will attend the meeting in the Kazakh capital of Astana.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Voice of America.</s>Syrian rebel groups will attend talks in the Kazakh capital next week aimed at bringing an end to the country's nearly six-year war, rebel officials told AFP on Monday.

"All the rebel groups are going. Everyone has agreed," said Mohammad Alloush, a leading figure in the Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) rebel group.

"Astana is a process to end the bloodletting by the regime and its allies. We want to end this series of crimes," Alloush said.

Ahmad al-Othman from the Sultan Murad faction also told AFP that "the rebel groups have decided to go to the talks".

The meetings in Astana are hosted by regime backer Russia and rebel supporter Turkey, who are working closely to find an end to the Syrian conflict although they have backed opposing sides.

The talks are set to begin on January 23.

Earlier this month, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he was "optimistic" about the talks and would be "ready for reconciliation with (rebels) on the condition that they lay down their arms", according to the French lawmakers with whom he met.

US president-elect Donald Trump's transition team has been invited to take part, but has not yet officially responded.

The talks are expected to build on a nationwide truce that began on December 30 and initially saw a drop in violence across many of Syria's battlefronts.

The ceasefire excludes the Islamic State jihadist group and its rival, the Fateh al-Sham Front, which changed its name from Al-Nusra Front after breaking ties with Al-Qaeda last year.
The Syrian Opposition agree to attend peace talks with the Syrian government in Astana, Kazakhstan, in order to press for a ceasefire to the conflict.