US and Russia reach agreement for Syria ceasefire

[Anthea]

Fresh talks between US and Russia renew hopes for Syrian peace deal

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, are to meet in Geneva, unexpectedly raising the prospect of a groundbreaking deal on a cessation of hostilities in Syria.

The two men had been hoping to announce a deal at the G20 in China on Monday, but the agreement collapsed in acrimony after the US accused Russia of reneging on its previous commitments.

Explaining the decision to schedule a new meeting, to take place on Thursday and Friday, the Russian foreign ministry said: “The ministers worked through the remaining details of the agreement on the establishment of a Russian-American cooperation in the fight against terrorist groups operating in Syria, the expansion of access for humanitarian aid and the launch of an intra-Syrian political process.”

The US state department would not confirm the plans on Wednesday night, but Kerry spoke of the decision on a video link to London, where foreign ministers gathered for a conference with the Syrian High Negotiations Committee (HNC), the chief opposition negotiating body.

Russia and the US have been discussing for months the terms of a comprehensive deal in which the air force of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, is brought under the effective control of Russia, and the US and Russia jointly coordinate legitimate targets for the Syrians.

Activists and rescue workers say government aircraft dropped chlorine bombs as dozens of men, women and children suffer breathing difficulties, reports say

The US wants fresh assurances that Russia will sanction Syria if it breaks the terms of the ceasefire, but the Syrian air force has said it cannot tolerate being effectively grounded in its own sovereign territory.

The proposed deal would include Jabhat al-Nusra – the powerful jihadi group that announced in July it had split with al-Qaida – among the opposition groups the Syrians could target.

The potential breakthrough gives a new relevance to a blueprint for peaceful transition released on Wednesday by the HNC.

The document, the most comprehensive transition programme ever released by the body, allows for a six-month negotiation leading to the formation of a transitional governing body, responsible for running Syria for 18 months prior to UN-sponsored local, parliamentary and presidential elections.

The HNC insists that Assad and his ruling clique would have to stand aside after six months, something the Syrian government dismisses as not credible. Disputes over Assad’s future status prevented the Geneva peace talks process in the spring from making any serious progress.

The HNC hopes its transitional timetable, with an emphasis on the role of women, the release of detainees, non-sectarian politics and pluralism, is a riposte to those that say there is no unified credible alternative to the Russia-supported Assad regime. The blueprint is also designed to persuade Hillary Clinton, the US Democratic presidential nominee, that a credible non-sectarian plan for a post-Assad Syria is available.

The document proposes a decentralised state in which Kurds are offered a degree of autonomy, but not the full independence sought by many Syrian Kurds inside the YPG militia. The HNC stresses it is not seeking vengeance against the entire Assad apparatus, but will allow many of his clique either to remain in post or avoid justice at the international criminal court.

But in a warning that Russia and the US alone cannot seal the fate of Syria, chief opposition negotiator Riyad Hijab, who defected from Assad’s government in 2012 after serving as prime minister, said the HNC would reject any agreement struck by Russia and the US if it differed significantly from the HNC’s terms.

The self-styled caliphate has been in rapid decline since Turkey joined the war in northern Syria. But if the jihadis refocus their efforts on acts of terrorism in the west, victory may be short lived

“If what the Russians and the Americans agree upon is very much different from what the Syrians aspire to, then we shall not accept it,” Hijab said. There is concern in parts of the heterodox HNC that US president Barack Obama, in search of a legacy in Syria, will scramble to secure a deal with Russia that many Syrians oppose.

Boris Johnson, the British foreign secretary, endorsed the HNC blueprint, saying that, if peace talks were to get back on track, “it is obviously critical that the world and all the interlocutors in Geneva should be able to see that there is a future for Syria that goes beyond the Assad regime”.

Following talks with the HNC, he said: “Listening to everybody here, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that with common sense and flexibility and energy, this vision and this plan that Dr Hijab and his colleagues have put forward can be put into effect.”

The occasion allowed Johnson to recant discreetly on a previous claim that the west might need to ally with Assad in order to crush its primary enemy inside Syria, Islamic State.

Fighting inside Syria continued this week, with claims that a chlorine gas attack had been mounted on Tuesday, hospitalising 100 in the city of Aleppo, the site of a brutal siege by the Syrian army. On Wednesday an airstrike in the same neighbourhood killed 10 civilians, activists said.

There were also reports that Iraqi Shia militias had entered the city to support rebels in the fight to prevent Aleppo from being encircled by the Syrian army.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/ ... ewed-hopes

[Anthea]

Syrian ceasefire deal between US and Russia could come 'very soon'

US-Russian negotiations on a Syrian peace plan reached a critical moment in Geneva on Friday night as diplomats wrestled with details of a proposed ceasefire.

The Russian foreign minister told journalists that the talks had been paused for several hours while his US counterpart, John Kerry, consulted with Washington.

“It’s going to be announced very soon, I think. I hope before Washington goes to sleep. My appeal to you is to be patient. Same as me,” Sergei Lavrov said.

The negotiating session in a Geneva lakeside hotel was the fourth meeting between the two men in two weeks, in an atmosphere US officials described as “businesslike”.

But it was clear that the sort of progress state department officials had previously insisted was essential for Kerry to make the trip from Washington had failed to materialise, while the Syrian regime made military gains at high civilian cost around the besieged city of Aleppo.

“All I can say is we can’t guarantee in any way at this point that we are on the cusp of finishing. This is an iterative process. It is highly technical,” a senior administration official told reporters on the plane to Switzerland. “And there are a number of areas that we’re going to continue to have to discuss with the Russians tomorrow and potentially beyond tomorrow.”

The peace plan on the table focuses first on achieving a ceasefire in Aleppo and opening up routes for humanitarian relief to reach the city, and then a widening of the truce with an end to regime airstrikes, and a joint US-Russian air campaign against al-Qaida-linked extremists.

Since the current series of ceasefire talks with Lavrov began, a US official said that Kerry had made clear “Aleppo would have to be resolved before we move forward” with the wider ceasefire.

Even as Kerry and Lavrov met in Geneva, however, reports came in of a regime offensive in Aleppo, recapturing a strategically important district in the southern suburbs and bombing encircled eastern neighbourhoods, where 250,000 people are cut off. Civil society groups in the city said that barrel bombs dropped by helicopter on Friday had killed at least nine people, including four children.

Meanwhile, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebel shelling of a government-held district in the frontline Salah al-Din district had killed at least eight people, four of whom were children.

On the night flight from Washington to Geneva, Kerry’s aides were asked repeatedly by reporters whether he was allowing the Russians to play for time while Moscow’s ally in Damascus made military gains.

“We need to get moving close, very close to a deal, and then at some point we need to reach that deal,” one senior official said. “We need to see a situation where it’s clear from whatever is being agreed with the Russians that there will not be a siege of Aleppo. And if we conclude that we can get there, we’ll keep going. If we conclude that it’s just a waste of time and that … it’s being dragged on for no other purpose than to gain time, then there’ll be no purpose for us to [continue].”

The state department had previously insisted Kerry would not return to Geneva until there was a breakthrough on the last points. By Thursday afternoon, that had still not materialised but the secretary of state decided there was a better chance of progress face-to-face with Lavrov in Switzerland than staying in Washington.

A senior official said: “We got to the point where we thought it would be useful for them to sit down again, so we decided to get on a plane and go to Geneva.”

Another official suggested that one of the reasons that Kerry had returned to Geneva despite misgivings was that Syrian opposition groups had urged him to make the last-ditch effort.

“They want us to try,” the official said. “So that’s why we’re trying. And if we reach a deal, then that’s great; and if we don’t, we’re not going to go on forever for the sake of pursuing a deal.”

Moscow and Washington agree that progress has been made over the past fortnight, with several elements of the plan settled and taken off the table, but the state department has repeatedly said this week that there are a few “technical issues” that remained unresolved before Kerry’s return to Geneva.

One of those involved the delineation of territory held by the Front for the Conquest of Syria (Jabhat Fateh al-Sham), formerly the al-Qaida affiliate known as the Nusra Front. Both Washington and Moscow see the group as irreconcilable terrorists and have agreed to coordinate airstrikes against it, but the US is anxious to prevent the Russians from using the joint campaign as a pretext to bomb other anti-regime groups.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/ ... rry-geneva

[Anthea]

US and Russia reach tentative agreement for Syria ceasefire

Pause in fighting to begin on Monday night, allowing humanitarian aid to flow – with Russian and US forces set to launch joint airstrikes against extremists

The US and Russia agreed a tentative ceasefire deal for Syria late on Friday night, intended to lead the way to a joint US-Russian air campaign against Islamic State and other extremist groups and new negotiations on the country’s political future.

The deal was announced by John Kerry, the US secretary of state, and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, after 13 hours of talks in Geneva and a tense wait while Kerry consulted others in his administration by phone to Washington.

Both were cautious in describing the deal but said it was a possible “turning point” after more than five years of a brutal conflict that has taken over 400,000 lives.

“No one is building this based on trust. It is based on oversight, compliance, mutual interest,” Kerry said. “This is an opportunity, and not more than that until it becomes a reality.”

Lavrov described the situation in Syria as a “quagmire” with multiple warring parties, some of whom would seek to undermine the US-Russian deal. For that reason, he added, much of the deal would remain secret to prevent efforts at sabotage. But the Russian foreign minister said Russia had secured the agreement of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus.

Russia will do “what depends on us”, Lavrov promised, but noted “not everything does”.

As part of the complex agreement, a seven-day pause in the fighting would begin on Monday evening, the beginning of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. During that time, the Syrian army would relax its stranglehold on rebel held areas of Aleppo allowing for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the starving city, while rebels would stop fighting around government areas.

The Syrian regime would suspend airstrikes on rebel-held areas around the country, the main source of civilian casualties.

If the ceasefire holds, the Russian and US military would start planning joint air operations against extremist groups, including Isis and al-Nusra Front (also referred to as the Front for the Conquest of Syria). The Syrian air force would stay out of zones being targeted by the US and Russia. The US is also aiming to convince other rebel groups to separate themselves from the Nusra Front where they have been fighting the regime together.

“Today the United States and Russia are announcing a plan which we hope will reduce violence, reduce suffering and resume movement toward a negotiated peace and a transition in Syria ... that if followed, has ability to provide a turning point, a moment of change,” said Kerry.

Lavrov said he hoped the ceasefire would lead to the prompt resumption of negotiations over Syria’s political future. Kerry said that he had been in contact with the opposition groups in the High Negotiation Committee over the course of the week and they were prepared to take part in such talks if the ceasefire held and humanitarian aid was delivered to besieged civilian populations.

Staffan de Mistura, the UN’s special envoy for Syria, called the agreement a real window of opportunity and said he would consult the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, on the timing of new political negotiations.

If the ceasefire holds for the first week, US and Russian military officers would form a joint cell to plan and coordinate airstrikes against Isis and al-Nusra. Delineating the zones deemed to be controlled by Nusra Front was one of the thorniest issues at the negotiations, as the extremist group has fought with a range of other rebel organisations on different fronts in western Syria. Disentangling them from their allies on the ground will be one of the biggest challenges of maintaining the ceasefire deal.

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

[Londoner]

کەرە مەتۆپە بەهار نزيکە=Jack Ass don't die from starvation, spring approaching.