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Negotiations fail to end violence in Syrian flashpoints

Xinhua, August 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

Negotiations to settle the violent situation in a Syrian town bordering Lebanon and two northwestern Shiite towns have failed, making an accompanied short truce collapse as well, the second to collapse in less than two weeks, a mediator familiar with the negotiations said Saturday.

The Syrian forces backed by Hezbollah resumed their wide-scale offensive against militant groups in the town of Zabadani, west of the capital Damascus near the Lebanese borders.

Rebels in the northwest resumed their shelling against the besieged Shiite towns of Kafraya and Foa in the countryside of the northwestern province of Idlib, after the negotiations to alleviate the suffering of civilians there failed, according to Mohammad Abu Qassem, a mediator familiar with the negotiations.

The negotiations were taking place in Turkey between an Iranian delegation and a delegation of the rebels' Ahrar al-Sham Movement. The Iranian and the Turks are brokering the talks which have been running for a while and resulted in two brief truces that later collapsed.

Abu Qassem did not disclose why the fresh negotiations have failed, but the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said division among the Ahrar al-Sham Movement was behind the failure.

Abu Qassem, secretary general of Syria's Tadamun (Solidarity) Party, is a mediator on behalf of fighting groups inside Zabadani. He said the talks ended Friday just hours before the end of the agreed-upon truce that is due to expire Saturday morning.

The negotiations were about allowing the trapped rebels in Zabadani to withdraw to rebel-held areas in Idlib, much of which has already been controlled by the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, as the Syrian army backed by its Shiite Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, has controlled 85 percent of it.

In return, the rebels besieging the towns of Kafraya and Foa will allow the civilians in the town to leave and seek medical treatment at one of the hospitals of the coastal city of Latakia, the hometown of President Bashar al-Assad and the heartland of his Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Settling the situation in Zabadai is important for the Syrian army due to its strategic importance near Lebanon. Releasing the siege on the Shiite towns is also important as 40,000 people are currently trapped there with no proper medical attention, or even food. Endit