Tag Archives: Peace Talks

Syrian army threatens to encircle Aleppo as peace talks falter

BEIRUT/AMMAN/GENEVA (Reuters) – A Syrian military offensive backed by heavy Russian air strikes threatened to cut critical rebel supply lines into the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday while the warring sides said peace talks had not started despite a U.N. statement they had.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura announced the formal start on Monday of the first attempt in two years to negotiate an end to a war that has killed 250,000 people, caused a refugee crisis in the region and Europe and empowered Islamic State militants.

But both opposition and government representatives have since said the talks had not in fact begun and fighting on the ground raged on without constraint.

The opposition canceled a meeting with de Mistura on Tuesday afternoon, and issued a statement condemning “a massive acceleration of Russian and regime military aggression on Aleppo and Homs”, calling it a threat to the political process.

Rebels described the assault north of Aleppo as the most intense yet. One commander said opposition-held areas of the divided city were at risk of being encircled entirely by the government and allied militia, appealing to foreign states that back the rebels to send more weapons.

The main Syrian opposition council said after meeting de Mistura on Monday it had not and would not negotiate unless the government stopped bombarding civilian areas, lifted blockades on besieged towns and released detainees.

The head of the Syrian government delegation also denied talks had started after discussions with de Mistura on Tuesday.

Bashar al-Ja’afari said after two and a half hours of talks that the envoy had yet to provide an agenda or list of opposition participants. “The formalities are not yet ready,” he told reporters at the United Nations office in Geneva.

He also said that if the opposition “really cared” about the lives of Syrians it should condemn the killing of more than 60 people on Sunday by Islamic State bombers in a neighborhood that is home to the country’s holiest Shi’ite shrine.

A U.N. source said de Mistura had promised to present an opposition delegation list by Wednesday. Its makeup is subject to fierce disagreements among the regional and global powers that have been drawn into the conflict.

The refugee crisis and spread of the jihadist Islamic State through large areas of Syria, and from there to Iraq, has injected a new urgency to resolve the five-year-old Syria war.

But the chances of success, always very slim, appear to be receding ever more as the government, supported by Russian air strikes, advances against rebels, some of them U.S.-backed, in several parts of western Syria where the country’s main cities are located.

“DECISIVE BATTLE”

The attack north of Aleppo that began in recent days is the first major government offensive there since the start of Russian air strikes on Sept. 30.

The area is strategic to both sides. It safeguards a rebel supply route from Turkey into opposition-held parts of the city and stands between government-held parts of western Aleppo and the Shi’ite villages of Nubul and al-Zahraa which are loyal to Damascus.

“The supply routes were not cut but there is heavy bombardment of them by the jets,” said a commander in the Levant Front rebel group who gave his name as Abu Yasine. “The Russian jets are trying to hit headquarters and cut supply routes.”

The Russian jets had been working “night and day” for three days, he added, and reiterated the rebels’ long-held demand for anti-aircraft missiles to confront the assault.

“If there is no support, the regime could besiege the city of Aleppo and cut the road to the north,” said Abu Yasine, whose group is one of the rebel movements that have received military support from states opposed to Assad, funneled via Turkey.

Advancing government forces seized the village of Hardatnin some 10 km (six miles) northwest of Aleppo, building on gains of the previous day, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring body. Syrian state media also reported the advance.

Another rebel commander said he had sent reinforcements to the area. “We sent new fighters this morning, we sent heavier equipment there. It seems it will be a decisive battle in the north, God willing,” said Ahmed al-Seoud, head of a Free Syrian Army group known as Division 13. “We sent TOW missile platforms. We sent everything there,” he told Reuters.

U.S.-made TOW missiles, or guided anti-tank missiles, are the most potent weapon in the rebel arsenal and have been supplied to vetted rebel groups as part of a program of military support overseen by the Central Intelligence Agency.

But while they have helped rebels to slow advances on the ground, they are of little use against fighter bombers.

The Russian intervention has reversed the course of the war for Damascus, which suffered a series of major defeats to rebels in western Syria last year before Moscow deployed its air force as part of an alliance with Iran.

In an interview with Reuters, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Russian President Vladimir Putin was undermining international efforts to end the war by bombing opponents of Islamic State in an attempt to bolster Assad.

OPPOSITION WARY OF ENVOY

“The Russians say let’s talk, and then they talk and they talk and they talk. The problem with the Russians is while they are talking they are bombing, and they are supporting Assad,” Hammond said.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Hammond was spreading “dangerous disinformation”, while the Kremlin said his statements could not be taken seriously.

Western states opposed to Assad, including the United States and Britain, piled pressure on the opposition to attend the Geneva talks which have been beset by problems including a row over who should be invited to negotiate with Damascus.

The opposition says talks are impossible without a halt to bombing, release of prisoners and lifting of sieges to allow humanitarian aid to reach blockaded civilians.

“Nothing has changed in the situation on the ground. So as long as the situation is like this we are not optimistic,” opposition negotiator Mohamad Alloush told reporters. “There are no good intentions from the regime’s side to reach a solution.”

De Mistura said on Monday the responsibility of agreeing ceasefires across Syria lay with major powers and that his remit was only to hold talks on a U.N. resolution on elections, governance and a new constitution.

(Additional reporting by Kinda Makieh in Geneva; writing by Tom Perry; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Peter Graff)

U.N. announces start of Syria peace talks as government troops advance

GENEVA/BEIRUT/ROME (Reuters) – The United Nations announced on Monday peace talks for Syria had begun and called on world powers to push for a ceasefire, even as government forces, backed by Russian air strikes, launched their biggest offensive near Aleppo in a year.

Government troops and allied fighters captured hilly countryside near Aleppo on Monday, putting a key supply route used by opposition forces into firing range, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

Rebels said the offensive was being conducted with massive Russian air support, despite a promise of goodwill steps by the Syrian government to spur peace negotiations.

The opposition has said that without a halt to bombing, the lifting of sieges on towns and freeing of prisoners, it will not participate in talks in Geneva called by the United Nations.

Nevertheless, opposition delegates met in Geneva for two hours with U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura, who said this session marked the official beginning of peace talks. He also said that the Syrian people deserved to see improvements on the ground and the opposition had a “strong point” in demanding goodwill steps.

International powers should immediately begin talks on how to enforce a ceasefire, he said.

The government’s military assault has overshadowed de Mistura’s attempts to convene the first peace negotiations in two years, intended to start as “proximity talks,” with government and opposition delegations in separate rooms.

A senior U.S. official returned from a visit to northern Syrian territory held by Kurdish fighters, who have advanced against Islamic State militants with the help of U.S. air support.

The Geneva peace talks mark the first attempt in two years to hold negotiations to end a war that has drawn in regional and international powers, killed at least 250,000 people and forced 10 million from their homes.

The death toll from an Islamic State suicide attack near Damascus climbed to more than 70 people, the Observatory said. The attack by the Sunni Muslim militants targeted a government-held neighborhood that is home to Syria’s holiest Shi’ite Muslim shrine.

ATTACK

Opposition delegates agreed late on Friday to travel to Geneva after saying they had received guarantees to improve the situation on the ground, such as a release of detainees and a halt to attacks on civilian areas.

But the opposition says there has been no easing of the conflict, with government and allied forces including Iranian militias pressing offensives across important areas of western Syria, most recently north of Aleppo.

“The (latest) attack started at 2 a.m., with air strikes and missiles,” said rebel commander Ahmed al-Seoud, describing the situation near Aleppo, once Syria’s biggest city and commercial center, now partly ruined and divided between government and insurgent control.

Seoud told Reuters his Free Syrian Army group had sent reinforcements to an area near the village of Bashkoy.

“We took guarantees from America and Saudi to enter the negotiations … (but) the regime has no goodwill and has not shown us any goodwill,” he said from nearby Idlib province.

The British-based Observatory monitoring group said government forces were gaining ground in the area, and had captured most of the village of Duweir al-Zeitun near Bashkoy. It reported dozens of air strikes on Monday morning. Syrian state television also said government forces were advancing.

The fighting has created a new flow of refugees. A Turkish disaster agency said more than 3,600 Turkmens and Arabs fleeing advancing pro-government forces in northern Latakia province had crossed into Turkey in the past four days.

NEGOTIATION “UNDER ESCALATION”

The opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) indicated it would leave Geneva unless peace moves were implemented.

Bashar al-Jaafari, the head of the government delegation, said on Sunday Damascus was considering options such as ceasefires, humanitarian corridors and prisoner releases. But he suggested they might come about as a result of the talks, not as a condition for negotiations to begin.

The humanitarian crisis wrought by the almost five-year-old conflict has worsened as a result of the increased fighting. International attention has focused in particular on the fate of civilians trapped and starving in besieged towns.

The United Nations said on Monday the Syrian government had approved “in principle” a U.N. request for aid deliveries to the town of Madaya, under siege from government forces, as well as the towns of al-Foua and Kefraya, beset by insurgents.

“Based on this, the U.N. will submit a detailed list of supplies and other details; and will include and reiterate the request for nutrition supplies and entry of nutrition/health assessment teams,” said Jenes Laerke, spokesman for the U.N Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. No date was given for aid shipments.

Opposition delegate Farrah Atassi said government forces were escalating their military campaign, making it hard to justify the opposition’s presence in Geneva.

“Today, we are going to Mr De Mistura to demand again and again, for a thousand times, that the Syrian opposition is keen to end the suffering of the Syrian people,” Atassi said. “However, we cannot ask the Syrian opposition to engage in any negotiation with the regime under this escalation.”

Since the last Syrian peace talks took place in early 2014, militants from Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, have proclaimed a “caliphate” in swathes of Syria and Iraq, drawing a U.S.-led coalition into the conflict with air strikes. Last year Russia began a separate campaign of air strikes in support of its ally, President Bashar al-Assad.

Brett McGurk, U.S. envoy to the coalition, said he had visited territory held by Kurdish fighters in Syria over the weekend to assess the counter-Islamic State campaign.

The Kurds have proven the most capable allies of U.S.-led forces on the ground in Syria, capturing territory from Islamic State. But their relationship with Washington irks U.S. ally Turkey, which sees the Syrian Kurds as allies of its own Kurdish separatist militants. The Syrian Kurds have so far been excluded from the Geneva talks.

McGurk said he had discussed next steps in the Syria campaign with “battle-tested and multi-ethnic anti-ISIL fighters”. Washington supported an inclusive approach to the talks, he said.

All previous diplomatic efforts have failed to stop the war.

A senior Western diplomat said the opposition had shown up in the Swiss city so as not to play “directly into the hands of the regime” by staying away.

“They want tangible and visible things straight away, but there are things that realistically can’t be done now such as ending the bombing. It’s obvious that that is too difficult. The easiest compromises are releasing civilians and children.”

(Additional reporting by John Davision in Beirut and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Syrian opposition to go to Geneva as peace talks open

GENEVA/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria’s main opposition group agreed to travel to Geneva, where the United Nations on Friday opened peace talks to end the country’s five-year-old war, but said it wanted to discuss humanitarian issues before engaging in political negotiations.

On the ground, opponents of President Bashar al-Assad said they were facing a Russian-backed military onslaught, with hundreds of civilians reported to be fleeing as the Syrian army and allied militia tried to capture a suburb of Damascus and finish off rebels defending it.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura had invited the Syrian government and an opposition umbrella group to Geneva for “proximity talks”, in which they would meet in separate rooms.
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Until the last minute, the opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) had refused to go. The group, which includes both armed and political opponents of Assad, had insisted it wanted an end to air strikes and sieges of towns and the release of detainees before talks could start.

Late on Friday, the HNC said it was going to Geneva, having received guarantees that its demands, outlined in a U.N. Security Council resolution last month, would be met, but it made clear its engagement in the process would initially be limited.

“The HNC will go to Geneva tomorrow to discuss these humanitarian issues which will pave the way into the political process of negotiations,” spokesman Salim al-Muslat told the Arabic news channel al-Arabiya al-Hadath.

The HNC said it had drawn up a list of 3,000 Syrian women and children in government prisons who should be released.

SUNDAY MEETING

De Mistura opened the talks on Friday by meeting the Syrian government delegation. He said that while he had not yet received formal notice that the HNC would attend, he expected to meet its delegation on Sunday.

“They’ve raised an important point of their concern, they would like to see a gesture from the government authorities regarding some kind of improvement for the people of Syria during the talks, for instance release of prisoners, or some lifting of sieges,” de Mistura said.

But he added this was a human rights point and “not even an issue to negotiate”, and had strongly suggested the best way to get such measures implemented would be to start negotiating in Geneva, by proxy or directly.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had made a major push to get the HNC delegation to Geneva, and the group said he had contacted it by phone to urge it to attend.

“Secretary Kerry has been in touch with all of his counterparts, including this morning with (Russian Foreign Minister) Sergei Lavrov … and with others, trying to find a way, a formula, in which we can urge the delegation or some version of the delegation to show up here,” a senior U.S. official said.

The Syrian government delegation, headed by United Nations ambassador Bashar al Jaafari, arrived at the talks on Friday afternoon but made no statement.

Another major force, the Kurds who control much of northeast Syria and have proven one of the few groups capable of winning territory from Islamic State, were excluded from the talks after Turkey demanded they be kept away. The Kurds say their absence means the talks are doomed to fail.

GOVERNMENT MOMENTUM

International diplomacy has so far seen only failures in a 5-year-old multi-sided ethno-sectarian civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people and driven more than 10 million from their homes while drawing in regional states and global powers.

De Mistura’s two predecessors both quit in apparent frustration after staging failed peace conferences.

Since the last talks collapsed in 2014, Islamic State fighters surged across Syria and Iraq declaring a “caliphate”, the United States and its European and Arab allies launched air strikes against them, and Russia joined in last year with a separate air campaign to support Assad.

Moscow’s intervention in particular has altered the balance of power on the ground, giving strong momentum to government forces and reversing months of rebel gains.

The Syrian military and allied militia are seeking to build on gains in western Syria, and have turned their focus to opposition-held suburbs southwest of Damascus.

The aim is to crush rebels in the district of Daraya to secure the nearby military airport at Mezzeh, said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict with sources on the ground.

Rebels had rejected a government deadline for them to withdraw from the suburb of Mouadamiya – home to 45,000 people – by Friday, said Abu Ghiath al-Shami, spokesman for rebel group Alwiyat Seif al-Sham.

More than 500 families had fled, he said. “They are suffering a shortage of food, medicine, milk – there is no power, nothing,” he said, adding that 16 barrel bombs had been dropped on Friday.

A Syrian military source denied the use of barrel bombs, which have been widely documented in the war, and accused the opposition of exaggerating the conditions. “There has been progress by the army in the last days, some successes particularly in the Daraya area,” the source said.

Rebels say the fighting is of more concern to them than the fate of the negotiations. Asked about the future of the talks, Shami told Reuters he was “a bit busy” dealing with the fighting.

(Addional reporting by Lisa Barrington, Ali Abdelaty and Stephanie Nebehay; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Syrian opposition demands answers before joining peace talks

BEIRUT/GENEVA/PARIS (Reuters) – Plans to hold the first negotiations to end the civil war in Syria for two years were in doubt on Wednesday after the opposition said it would not show up unless the United Nations responded to demands for a halt to attacks on civilian areas.

The Syrian government has already agreed to join the talks that U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura hopes to convene in an indirect format in Geneva on Friday with the aim of ending the five-year-old war that has killed 250,000 people.

Washington urged Syrian opposition groups to attend.

“Factions of the opposition have an historic opportunity to go to Geneva and propose serious, practical ways to implement a ceasefire, humanitarian access and other confidence-building measures, and they should do so without preconditions,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

Preparations have been beset by difficulties, including a dispute over who should be invited to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad’s government as it claws back territory with help from Russia and Iran.

Kurds, who control a swathe of northern Syria, were not invited and predicted the talks would fail.

A Saudi-backed opposition council that groups armed and political opponents of Assad broke up a second day of meetings in Riyadh, saying it was waiting for a response from the United Nations to demands before it decided whether to attend.

While it has expressed support for a political solution and talks, the opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) says attacks on civilian areas must stop before any negotiations.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, it also called for the lifting of sieges on blockaded areas among other steps outlined by the U.N. Security Council in a resolution passed last month.

“We are waiting for the response of de Mistura first, and then Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, which is the most important … If it is positive maybe there will be an agreement to go,” Asaad al-Zoubi, an HNC member, told Saudi TV channel Al Ikhbariya.

Diplomacy has so far failed to resolve a conflict that has forced millions from their homes, creating a refugee crisis in neighbouring states and Europe. With the war raging unabated, the latest diplomatic effort has been overshadowed by increased tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

KURDS LEFT OUT

The Syrian government, aided by Russian air strikes and allied militia including Iranian forces, is gaining ground against rebels in western Syria, this week capturing the town of Sheikh Maskin near the Jordanian border.

Russian air strikes that began on Sept. 30 have tilted the war Assad’s way after major setbacks earlier in 2015 brought rebels close to coastal areas that form the heartland of Assad’s Alawite sect and are of great importance to the state he leads.

While the Saudi-backed HNC includes powerful rebel factions fighting Assad in western Syria, Russia has been demanding wider participation to include Syrian Kurds who control wide areas of northern and northeastern Syria.

The Syrian Kurdish PYD party, which is affiliated with the Kurdish YPG militia, was however excluded from the invitation list in line with the wishes of Turkey, a major sponsor of the rebellion which views the PYD as a terrorist group.

The PYD’s representative in France, Khaled Eissa, who had been on a list of possible delegates proposed by Russia, blamed regional and international powers, in particular Turkey, for blocking the Kurds and forecast the talks would fail.

“You can’t neglect a force that controls an area three times the size of Lebanon,” he said. “We will not respect any decision taken without our participation.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said the PYD could join the talks at a later stage.

Haytham Manna, a prominent opposition figure allied to the PYD and invited to the talks, told Reuters he would not attend if his allies were not there.

Manna is co-leader of an opposition group called the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), which includes the PYD and was formed in December in Kurdish-controlled Hasaka province.

Ilham Ahmed, a Kurdish politician who co-chairs the SDC, heaped criticism on de Mistura.

“We hold him responsible – not America or Russia – him and the United Nations. He was tasked with forming the delegations in a balanced way and in a way that represents all the elements of Syrian society,” she told Reuters.

“When the whole of northern Syria is excluded from these negotiations, it means they are the ones dividing Syria. They are always accusing the Kurds of dividing Syria, but they are the ones dividing Syria.”

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny and John Davison, John Irish, and Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Giles Elgood/Mark Heinrich)

U.N. invites warring parties to Syria talks this week

AMMAN/BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations invited Syria’s government and opposition to peace talks in Geneva on Friday, but Saudi-backed opponents of President Bashar al-Assad have yet to decide whether to drop their objections to taking part.

The U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, sent out invitations to the delayed talks on Tuesday, without saying who had been invited or how many groups might participate.

Earlier, the opposition had cast doubt on whether it would go to Geneva, accusing the United States of adopting unacceptable Iranian and Russian ideas on solving the conflict.

A decision by the opposition’s recently formed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) on whether to accept the invitation is due to be taken at a meeting in Riyadh.

“There is consensus in the High Committee on being positive in our decision,” spokesman Salim al-Muslat told the Arabic news channel Arabiya al-Hadath. However, he added that the final decision would not be made at the meeting until Wednesday.

A Western diplomat said the Geneva talks could not be convened if the HNC were to stay away, and de Mistura would have to find a face-saving way to avoid the complete collapse of the process, perhaps by announcing a further delay.

The main Syrian Kurdish party said it had not been invited, a move some interpreted as intended to keep Turkey, which regards Syria’s Kurdish fighters as terrorists, engaged in the process.

De Mistura has said the Geneva meeting will first seek a ceasefire and later work toward a political settlement. The talks are expected to last for six months, with diplomats shuttling between rival delegations in separate rooms.

The Syrian government, which is clawing back territory from the rebels with the help of Russian air strikes and other allies including Iranian fighters, has already said it will attend.

The HNC has however repeatedly said the government and its allies must halt bombardments and lift blockades of besieged areas before it will join talks.

Opposition official Asaad al-Zoubi, who is due to head the HNC delegation, told Reuters that without the implementation of goodwill steps including the release of detainees “there will be no negotiations”.

Reflecting opposition misgivings about the process, he told Al-Hadath that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had tabled Iranian and Russian ideas about Syria at a recent meeting with opposition leader Riad Hijab.

“It was not comfortable for us for America … to adopt what came in the Iranian and Russian initiatives,” Zoubi said.

The U.S. Special Envoy for Syria, Michael Ratney, urged the opposition to attend.

“Our advice to the Syrian opposition is to take advantage of this opportunity to put the intentions of the regime to the test and to expose in front of international public opinion which are the parties serious in reaching a political settlement in Syria and which are not,” he said.

LOST LEGITIMACY

The United States has supported the opposition to Assad, who it says has lost legitimacy and must leave power. But the opposition has been increasingly critical of U.S. policy. Hijab said earlier this month the United States had backtracked on its position over Syria, softening its stance to accommodate Russia.

Diplomacy has repeatedly failed to resolve the conflict that has killed 250,000 people and forced millions from their homes, spawning a refugee crisis in neighboring states and Europe. De Mistura is the third international envoy for Syria. His two predecessors – Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi – both quit.

Preparations for the talks have been beset by problems including a dispute over who should represent the opposition.

Russia has tried to expand the opposition delegation to include a powerful Kurdish faction that controls wide areas of northern Syria. The Sunni Arab opposition say the Kurdish PYD party should be part of the government delegation.

Turkey said it would not attend if the PYD was invited.

The PYD, which is fighting Islamic State and has enjoyed military support from the United States, is a terrorist group and has no place with the opposition at the negotiating table, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

PYD leader Saleh Muslim, who earlier told Reuters he expected his party to be asked to Geneva, said he not received an invitation and was not aware that any Kurdish representatives had been asked to come.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier it would be impossible to reach a peace agreement in Syria without inviting Kurds to join the negotiating process.

The Syrian Kurds say the autonomous government they have established in the northeast is a decentralized model for how to resolve the war that has splintered the country.

The Syrian government and its allies have made significant gains against rebels in western Syria in recent weeks.

On Monday they captured the rebel-held town of Sheikh Maskin in southern Syria near the border with Jordan. It was the first significant gain for Damascus in that area since the start of the Russian intervention on Sept. 30.

In recent weeks government forces and their allies have also captured two strategic towns in the northwestern province of Latakia, where they are trying to seal the border to cut insurgent supply lines to Turkey.

(Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington in Beirut, Vladimir Soldatkin and Andrew Osborn in Moscow, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Nick Tattersall in Turkey; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Giles Elgood and David Stamp)

U.N. seeks Syrian peace talks this week, opposition threatens boycott

BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Monday it would issue invitations for marathon Syrian peace talks to begin this week, but opposition groups signaled they would stay away unless the government and its Russian allies halt air strikes and lift sieges on towns.

The first talks in two years to end the Syrian civil war were meant to begin on Monday but have been held up in part by a dispute over who should represent the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad. U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura said he was still working on his list, and expected to issue the invitations on Tuesday for talks to start on Friday.

The aim would be six months of talks, first seeking a ceasefire, later working toward a political settlement to a war that has killed more than 250,000 people, driven more than 10 million from their homes and drawn in global powers.

The ceasefire would cover the whole country except parts held by Islamic State militants and al Qaeda’s Syrian branch, the Nusra Front, de Mistura told a news conference in Geneva.

De Mistura, whose two predecessors quit in apparent frustration after holding failed peace conferences of their own, acknowledged the going would be difficult. Delegations would meet in separate rooms in “proximity talks”, with diplomats shuttling between them. Threats to pull out should be expected.

“Don’t be surprised: there will be a lot of posturing, a lot of walk-outs or walk-ins because a bomb has fallen or someone has done an attack…. You should neither be depressed nor impressed, but it’s likely to happen,” he said. “The important thing is to keep momentum.”

The spokesman for one of the rebel groups in the opposition High Negotiating Committee (HNC) said it was impossible for the opposition to attend as long as rebel territory is being pounded by air strikes and besieged towns are being starved.

“It is impossible to give up any of our demands. If we attend, it’s as if we are selling our martyrs,” said Abu Ghiath al-Shami, spokesman for Alwiyat Seif al-Sham, one of the groups fighting against Assad’s forces in the southwest.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he expected clarity within a day or two over who would attend, and expressed support for de Mistura’s decision to take time to draw up the list.

“We don’t want to decide and have it crumble on day one. It’s worth taking a day or two, or three, or whatever,” Kerry said during a visit to Laos.

The outcome was up to the Syrian parties, he added: “They have to be serious. If they are not serious, war will continue. Up to them. You can lead a horse to water; you can’t make it drink.”

RUSSIAN INTERVENTION

Years of high-level diplomacy have so far yielded no progress toward ending or even curbing the fighting. Since the last peace conference was held in early 2014, Islamic State fighters have declared a caliphate across much of Syria and Iraq, and the war has drawn in world powers.

The United States has led air strikes against the militants since 2014, and Russia launched a separate air campaign nearly four months ago against enemies of its ally Assad.

Russian firepower has helped the Syrian military and its allies achieve military gains, including a major push in the northwest of the country in recent days, with rebels acknowledging a turn in momentum.

The rise of Islamic State and Russia’s entry into the war have given new impetus to diplomacy, leading to a Dec. 18 U.N. Security Council resolution, backed by Washington and Moscow, that called for peace talks.

But world powers remain at odds over who should be invited. Russia says opposition figures it calls terrorists must be excluded, and wants to include groups like the Kurds who control wide areas of northern Syria. Regional heavyweight Turkey opposes inviting the Kurds.

The main Sunni Arab opposition groups, who are supported by Arab governments and the West, say they will not attend unless they can choose their own delegation. Spokesman Salim al-Muslat said the opposition HNC would discuss its position on Tuesday.

The HNC, formed in Saudi Arabia last month and grouping armed and political opponents of Assad, has repeatedly said talks cannot begin until air strikes are halted, government sieges of rebel-held territory lifted and detainees freed, steps outlined in the U.N. resolution.

“Unfortunately, it is not possible to sit and talk to anyone without the suffering being lifted first,” Muslat said on Arabic news channel Arabiya al-Hadath.

SUICIDE BOMBING

The peace conference, if it takes place, will be the third since the war began and the first convened by de Mistura, a veteran diplomat with dual Swedish and Italian nationality.

All previous diplomatic efforts foundered over the future role of Assad, with the opposition refusing to back off its demand that he leave power and the president refusing to go.

A suicide bomber driving a fuel tank truck blew himself up at a checkpoint run by the Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham in the northern city of Aleppo on Monday, killing at least 23 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Rebel forces lost the town of Rabiya in Latakia province over the weekend, their second major setback near the Turkish border in northwestern Syria in recent weeks as the government and Russia seek to cut rebel supply lines to Turkey.

“It’s a major pullback for us, but it is not over. We have 17 martyrs and 30 wounded. And none of the injuries are from bullets: it is all due to shrapnel from missiles, proof of how we are struggling to fend off Russian air strikes,” Firas Pasa, a leader of an ethnic Turkmen rebel group told Reuters in Gaziantep, Turkey, near the border.

“If the West wants us to defeat Syrian government forces then we urgently need anti-aircraft capabilities,” he said.

A member of Ahrar al-Sham, Abu Baraa al-Lathkani, said the rebels had abandoned the strategy of trying to hold territory and were shifting to guerrilla tactics.

The Syrian military, its morale running high, is planning the next phase of its offensive in northern Syria. The coming target is Idlib, a rebel stronghold, said a military source.

(Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington and Tom Perry in Beirut, Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman, David Brunnstrom in Vientiane, Humeyra Pamuk in Turkey and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

With days to go, rival camps bicker over teams for Syria peace talks

DAVOS/GENEVA (Reuters) – Syrian peace talks will go ahead in Geneva, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry insisted on Thursday, but with just days to go, rival camps bickered about who should be invited to take part.

Kerry conceded that the timetable may slip from a planned Jan. 25 start but there would be no fundamental delay, he said, and U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura would send out invitations on Sunday.

“What will happen is on Monday, there will be some discussions (in Geneva), but I would say that by Tuesday and Wednesday people will be able to get there. We just see this is as logistical,” Kerry told journalists at a roundtable discussion in Davos.

“We are just kind of lining pieces up a little bit here. So we’ll see where we are.”

With no military solution in sight after almost five years of war and over 250,000 deaths, Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed on Wednesday that the talks should go ahead despite no apparent agreement on who should represent the opposition.

Kerry said initial talks would be “proximity talks”, not a face-to-face meeting of participants in the same room.

“You are not going to have a situation where they are sitting down at the table staring at each other or shouting at each other; you are going to have to build some process here, and that’s what will begin,” Kerry said.

“The government of Syria will be wherever it is Mr. Staffan decides they will be and the … (opposition) will be wherever he decides. And if he has some other people he wants to talk to and meet with he will.”

Countries backing the talks, including the United States and Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey, are still at odds over which fighting groups should be branded “terrorists”, a discussion that is expected to continue even as De Mistura shuttles between the rival delegations in Geneva.

Russia and Iran, which support President Bashar al-Assad, have rejected attempts by Saudi Arabia, which like the United States and European powers opposes him, to organize the opposition’s delegation for the talks.

Russia wants the opposition negotiating team expanded to include other figures that could be deemed closer to its own thinking as well as the main Syrian Kurdish party, the PYD, and the affiliated YPG militia. But the opposition has said it will boycott the Geneva negotiations if Russia insists on such a shake-up.

ONE-SIDED TALKS?

Among Russia’s objections is the inclusion of Mohamad Alloush as chief negotiator for the opposition.

He is a member of the politburo of Jaysh al-Islam (Islam Army), a major rebel faction which Russia considers a terrorist group, and – diplomats say – is a close relative of Zahran Alloush, killed in a Russian air strike last month.

But many of Assad’s foes view Jaysh al-Islam as a legitimate part of the opposition.

Alloush insisted the Syrian government must halt attacks on civilians and end blockades before the talks can go ahead.

“The session will not take place until the measures are implemented … While no measures are taken, the chances are zero,” he told Reuters.

“We don’t want to go to Geneva … for photos.”

A Russian diplomat said that if the Alloush delegation boycotted the Geneva talks, the Syrian government would simply negotiate with an alternative opposition delegation favored by Russia. The last day to start the talks was Friday, Jan. 29, the diplomat said.

A Western diplomat dismissed the Russian comments and said that without the opposition there would be no talks to speak of while Alloush said some of Russia’s choices for an opposition delegation, such as the PYD, should sit with the government.

“How can talks happen with just one side?,” Alloush said.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, accused Russia of jeopardizing the talks by insisting on the inclusion of “terrorist groups” such as the YPG.

“Some circles, including Russia, they want to spoil the opposition side, putting some other elements in the opposition side like the YPG, which has been collaborating with the regime and attacking the moderate opposition,” he said.

Iran’s foreign minister has said that 10 opposition delegates were members of al Qaeda – one of three groups he said must be barred.

A senior French diplomat said there must be a credible framework in place before the talks can take place and if more time was needed, the U.N. should consider it.

“What we don’t want is to repeat the previous experience of Geneva 2,” the diplomat said, referring to negotiations in 2014 that failed after just a few days.

“The Security Council is clear. U.N. Special Envoy De Mistura must work with the opposition groups constituted in Riyadh. It doesn’t seem desirable to me that there is a third force,” the French diplomat said.

(Reporting by Tom Miles; Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

More aid reaches trapped Syrians, doubts cast on peace talks

NEAR MADAYA, Syria/BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) – A second batch of aid reached a besieged Syrian town and two trapped villages on Thursday and the United Nations accused rival factions of committing war crimes by causing civilians to starve to death.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, said aid trucks had entered the town of Madaya near the border with Lebanon, and the villages of Kefraya and al-Foua in Idlib province in the northwest. Syrian state media said six trucks had gone into Madaya.

For months, tens of thousands have been blockaded by government troops in Madaya and surrounded by rebel forces in the two villages.

“According to the ICRC team that entered Madaya, the people were very happy, even crying when they realized that wheat flour is on the way,” Dominik Stillhart, International Committee of the Red Cross director of operations, said in New York.

Aid officials hoped to bring in more supplies, with fuel deliveries set for Sunday, according to Stillhart.

“We hope … this effort will continue,” said Yacoub El Hillo, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Syria, who accompanied the convoy.

A senior U.N. human rights official said the use of starvation as a weapon was a war crime.

“Starving civilians is a war crime under international humanitarian law and of course any such act deserves to be condemned, whether it’s in Madaya or Idlib,” said U.N. Human Rights High Commissioner Zeid bin Ra’ad.

“Should there be prosecutions? Of course. At the very least there should be accountability for these crimes.”

“ATROCIOUS ACTS”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Syria’s warring parties, particularly the government, were committing “atrocious acts” and “unconscionable abuses” against civilians.

“Let me be clear: the use of starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime,” Ban told reporters.

The siege of Madaya, where people have reportedly died of starvation, has become a focal issue for Syrian opposition groups who want all such blockades lifted before they enter negotiations with the government planned for Jan. 25.

A prominent member of the political opposition to President Bashar al-Assad told Reuters that date was unrealistic, reiterating opposition demands for the lifting of sieges, a ceasefire and the release of detainees before negotiations.

“I personally do not think Jan. 25 is a realistic date for when it will be possible to remove all obstacles facing the negotiations,” George Sabra told Reuters.

A total of 45 trucks carrying food and medical supplies were due to be delivered to Madaya, and 18 to al-Foua and Kefraya on Thursday, aid officials said.

The Syrian Observatory said it had recorded 27 deaths in Madaya from malnutrition and lack of medical supplies, and at least 13 deaths in al-Foua and Kefraya due to lack of medical supplies.

The population of Madaya is estimated at 40,000, while about 20,000 live in al-Foua and Kefraya.

“The scenes we witnessed in Madaya were truly heartbreaking,” said Marianne Gasser, the most senior official with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Syria.

“The conditions are some of the worst that I have witnessed in my five years in the country. This cannot go on,” she said.

PEACE TALKS

The talks planned for Jan. 25 in Geneva are part of a peace process endorsed by the U.N. Security Council last month in a rare display of international agreement on Syria, where the war has killed 250,000 people.

U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said after meeting representatives of the United States, Russia and other powers on Wednesday that Jan. 25 was still the intended date.

Russia said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry would meet in Zurich on Wednesday, five days before the talks date.

But even with the backing of the United States and Russia, which support opposite sides in the conflict, the peace process faces formidable obstacles.

“The meeting is due in a bit more than 10 days, but before then de Mistura will present in New York what he has achieved,” said a senior Western diplomat.

“But he still has to define how to press ahead with this mechanism which to me is not looking good because all sides are not agreed on the parameters.”

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Jan. 25 remained the plan “but it is human beings who are negotiating on both sides” and changes regarding the date could still arise.

Fighting is raging between government forces backed by the Russian air force and Iranian forces on one hand, and rebels including groups that have received military support from states including Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Rebel groups that back the idea of a political settlement have rejected any negotiations before goodwill measures from Damascus including a ceasefire.

Sabra, the opposition politician, said: “There are still towns under siege. There are still Russian attacks on villages, schools and hospitals. There is no sign of goodwill.”

There are about 15 siege locations in Syria, where 450,000 people are trapped, the United Nations says.

The Syrian government has said it is ready to take part in the talks, but wants to see who is on the opposition negotiating team and a list of armed groups that will be classified as terrorists as part of the peace process.

Underscoring the complications on that issue, Russia condemned as terrorists two rebel groups that are represented in a newly-formed opposition council tasked with overseeing the negotiations.

“We do not see Ahrar al-Sham or Jaysh al-Islam as part of the opposition delegation because they are terrorist organizations,” the RIA news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov as saying.

(Reporting by Kinda Makieh near Madaya, Tom Perry, Mariam Karouny and Lisa Barrington in Beirut, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Jack Stubbs and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, John Irish in Paris, Tom Finn in Doha, Francois Murphy in Vienna and Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Yemen peace talks postponed, U.N. says

GENEVA (Reuters) – A round of United Nations-brokered Yemen peace talks will not begin on Jan. 14 as planned but may take place a week or more later, U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Muslim allies has been fighting the Shi’ite Houthi movement, which controls the capital, since March of last year. Nearly 6,000 people are known to have died.

The warring parties agreed last month on a broad framework for ending their war but a temporary truce was widely violated and has since ended.

Last week, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has joined forces with the Houthis, said he would not negotiate with the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, throwing into doubt the fate of the peace talks.

After the December round of talks, U.N. Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he would bring the two sides together again on Jan. 14, with Switzerland and Ethiopia both mentioned as possible locations.

But a meeting this week is no longer on the table.

“He is looking at a date after Jan 20,” Fawzi said. “It’s taking him some time to get the parties to agree on a location.”

“He wants to go for a location in the region. So his first option is to find a location acceptable to all parties in the region, but he has Switzerland of course in the back of his mind as an option.”

(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Tom Heneghan)