JEDDAH: The Syrian opposition is cautiously optimistic about new peace talks but wants guarantees on safety and security for civilians and strengthened de-escalation zones, an opposition leader told Arab News on Wednesday.
He spoke as key international players in Syria’s civil war gathered in Kazakhstan for a fresh round of negotiations over a Russian-led plan to ease fighting on the ground.
Representatives from Russia and Iran, who are the Assad regime’s key backers, and Turkey, which supports opposition groups, held “talks on an expert level” to lay the groundwork for two days of meetings that will include regime and opposition representatives, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry said.
Delegates will be expected to discuss the fate of over 3 millions Syrians living under siege by regime forces and Iranian and Hezbollah militias, Yahya Al-Aridi, a political adviser to the Syrian High Negotiations Committee (HNC), told Arab News.
They will also try to finalize details of a proposed de-escalation zone in the northern Idlib province, after Moscow set up three other safe areas around the country in a move that has led to a reduction in violence.
There remain major disagreements over who will police the zone covering opposition-held Idlib, on Syria’s northern border with Turkey, as Ankara and Tehran jockey for influence.
“We are cautiously optimistic about the Astana 6 talks as there will be the biggest gathering of individuals representing the various Syrian opposition fronts,” Al-Aridi said.
“We are seeking to ensure the safety and security of civilians, innocent Syrian people who are been denied basic commodities because of the siege imposed by the criminal regime’s forces and the sectarian militias.”
He said the Syrian opposition representatives had agreed to urge the UN and the Russian parties to pressure the Syrian regime to allow aid convoys into the besieged areas.
Al-Aridi said the aim of their participation in the meeting was to strengthen the de-escalation zones in Syria, in Eastern Ghouta, the south, and north of Homs, and to discuss violations of the cease-fire agreement signed in Ankara at the end of the last year.
He said there was a potential obstacle in the presence of the Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham, formerly known as Jabhat Al-Nusrah, in the negotiated areas, and the militants would have to accept any agreement reached in the talks.
“Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham forces will have to give up their arms for the sake of the safety of civilians. If they refuse then they will hear a different tone from us,” he said.
Al-Aridi believes that once an agreement is reached with the consent of all parties in Astana, it would pave the way for serious political talks in the forthcoming meeting in Geneva.
“The Astana meeting is dedicated to the military and humanitarian aspects of the Syrian crisis, while in Geneva the talks will focus on the political process,” he said.
“We will also discuss the fate of tens of thousands of Syrians who were forcibly arrested by regime mobs and sectarian militias. We will urge the UN and the Russian Federation to secure their release, and to end the brutal detention practiced by the Syrian regime against innocent people.”
The talks in Astana are the sixth round of negotiations Moscow has led since the start of the year as it seeks to pacify Syria after its game-changing intervention on the side of Bashar Assad.
Syrian opposition ‘cautiously optimistic’ at Astana talks
Syrian opposition ‘cautiously optimistic’ at Astana talks
Baghdad says it will prosecute Daesh militants being moved from Syria to Iraq
- The US military started the transfer process on Friday with the first Daesh prisoners moved from Syria to Iraq
BAGHDAD: Baghdad will prosecute and try militants from the Daesh group who are being transferred from prisons and detention camps in neighboring Syria to Iraq under a US-brokered deal, Iraq said Sunday.
The announcement from Iraq’s highest judicial body came after a meeting of top security and political officials who discussed the ongoing transfer of some 9,000 IS detainees who have been held in Syria since the militant group’s collapse there in 2019.
The need to move them came after Syria’s nascent government forces last month routed Syrian Kurdish-led fighters — once top US allies in the fight against Daesh — from areas of northeastern Syria they had controlled for years and where they had been guarding camps holding Daesh prisoners.
Syrian troops seized the sprawling Al-Hol camp — housing thousands, mostly families of Daesh militants — from the Kurdish-led force, which withdrew as part of a ceasefire. Troops last Monday also took control of a prison in the northeastern town of Shaddadeh, from where some Daesh detainees had escaped during the fighting. Syrian state media later reported that many were recaptured.
Now, the clashes between the Syrian military and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, sparked fears of Daesh activating its sleeper cells in those areas and of Daesh detainees escaping. The Syrian government under its initial agreement with the Kurds said it would take responsibility of the Daesh prisoners.
Baghdad has been particularly worried that escaped Daesh detainees would regroup and threaten Iraq’s security and its side of the vast Syria-Iraq border.
Once in Iraq, Daesh prisoners accused of terrorism will be investigated by security forces and tried in domestic courts, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said.
The US military started the transfer process on Friday with the first Daesh prisoners moved from Syria to Iraq. On Sunday, another 125 Daesh prisoners were transferred, according to two Iraqi security officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
So far, 275 prisoners have made it to Iraq, a process that officials say has been slow as the US military has been transporting them by air.
Both Damascus and Washington have welcomed Baghdad’s offer to have the prisoners transferred to Iraq.
Iraq’s parliament will meet later on Sunday to discuss the ongoing developments in Syria, where its government forces are pushing to boost their presence along the border.
The fighting between the Syrian government and the SDF has mostly halted with a ceasefire that was recently extended. According to Syria’s Defense Ministry, the truce was extended to support the ongoing transfer operation by US forces.
The Daesh group was defeated in Iraq in 2017, and in Syria two years later, but Daesh sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries. As a key US ally in the region, the SDF played a major role in defeating Daesh.
During the battles against Daesh, thousands of extremists and tens of thousands of women and children linked to them were taken and held in prisons and at the Al-Hol camp. The sprawling Al-Hol camp hosts thousands of women and children.
Last year, US troops and their partner SDF fighters detained more than 300 Daesh militants in Syria and killed over 20. An ambush in December by Daesh militants killed two US soldiers and one American civilian interpreter in Syria.
