New deal reached to continue evacuation of Aleppo’s rebel areas

Like the previous deal, the new agreement includes the evacuation of two Shiite towns under rebel siege in Idlib province as demanded by Iran-backed pro-government factions and adds evacuations from Madaya and Zabadani, two besieged, rebel-held towns near Syria’s border with Lebanon.

A Syrian father embraces one of his children upon their arrival at the Turkish crossing gate of Cilvegozu from the Syrian city of Idlib on December 17, 2016. Bulent Kilic / AFP

BEIRUT // Syrian rebel and pro-government forces on Saturday said they had agreed on a new deal to move fighters and thousands of civilians out of the last besieged opposition neighbourhoods in Aleppo.

The evacuation of eastern Aleppo was halted abruptly on Friday after each side accused the other of breaking a ceasefire. From Thursday to Friday morning, 10,000 people were able to leave the area, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

However, the United Nations and Syrian rebels said tens of thousands civilians were still trapped and in danger.

Like the previous deal, the new agreement includes the evacuation of two Shiite towns under rebel siege in Idlib province – a last-minute demand from Iran-backed pro-government factions earlier this week that delayed the initial withdrawal from Aleppo. It also includes a rebel demand for evacuations from Madaya and Zabadani, two besieged, rebel-held towns near Syria’s border with Lebanon.

Al Farook Abu Bakr, a representative of the hardline rebel group Ahrar Al Sham, confirmed that a deal had been reached for the evacuations to resume.

“There will be evacuations from Foua and Kafraya, as well as Madaya and Zabadani, and all the residents of Aleppo and the fighters will leave,” he said.

Al Manar – the television station of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hizbollah, which is fighting alongside Syrian government forces – reported on Saturday afternoon that convoys were en route to Foua and Kefraya, the two besieged villages in Idlib.

But there was no announcement of the agreement from the government, and it was unclear when the evacuation of Aleppo would resume. A Syrian government official who is part of the evacuations negotiating team said: “It was agreed to resume evacuations from east Aleppo in parallel with the evacuation of (medical) cases from Kefraya and Al Foua and some cases from Zabadani and Madaya.”​​

Marianne Gasser, the top Red Cross official in Syria, said in a statement from Aleppo, “People are expecting us to continue the evacuation. It’s important that the parties on the ground do their utmost to end this limbo. People have suffered a lot. Please come to an agreement and help save thousands of lives.”

On Friday, Moscow – a key ally of Damascus – said on Friday the evacuation of rebel neighbourhoods in eastern Aleppo had been completed and that no women or children remained there. This was disputed on social media by women and children still in Aleppo.

On Saturday, Russian defence ministry spokesman Major Gen Igor Konashenko said the evacuation had separated militants “of the so-called moderate opposition” from the “irreconcilable radicals” .

While the new deal raised hopes of restarting the evacuation, there was scepticism about whether it would succeed after the collapse of two previous agreements in the past week.

“There is nothing that leads us to be optimistic, but we are trying to work as much as possible to move the civilians who are still inside eastern Aleppo,” said Asaad Hanna, a rebel political officer based in Turkey.

The rebels have accused the pro-government militia forces of killing evacuees at a checkpoint on Friday. The Syrian government, meanwhile, said rebels leaving Aleppo on Friday violated the deal by trying to take hostages, heavy weapons and the corpses of government soldiers with them as they abandoned their stronghold.

Rebels were also accused of blocking the evacuation of the two Shiite villages in Idlib province that were part of the agreement.

Mr Hanna estimated that it would take three days to get the remaining civilians and fighters out of eastern Aleppo.

But getting a ceasefire to hold for that long will continue to be difficult. Adding more areas to the deal means it will need the participation and agreement of more armed elements from the myriad rebel and pro-government factions who could raise their own demands. And a wider operation means more movements of convoys and chances of conflict that could derail the entire process.

As the evacuation remained on hold, the international community continued its attempts to pile pressure on Russia and the Syrian government.

France has presented a UN Security Council draft resolution calling for international observers to oversee the Aleppo evacuation and humanitarian aid to enter the besieged rebel quarters. The measure, circulated to the council late on Friday, could be put to a vote on Sunday despite resistance from Russia, diplomats said.

Action in the UN on Syria has had little impact, with Russia using its veto to block six security resolutions regarding the conflict since 2011.

However, additional action could be forthcoming from the United States.

In what is thought to be his first statement on Syria since he won the election, Donald Trump said he supported the creation of “safe zones” in Syria and would ask Arabian Gulf states to pay for them.

“When I look at what’s going on in Syria, it’s so sad,” he said at a post-election “thank you” rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

“It’s so sad, and we’ve got to help people. And we have the Gulf states – they have nothing but money. We don’t have money – we owe 20 trillion dollars. I will get the Gulf states to give us lots of money and we’ll build, and help build safe zones in Syria so people can have a chance.”

Mr Trump had mentioned safe zones at one point during campaigning but he ran for office on an anti-interventionist foreign policy platform and has explicitly stated the US should not be directly involved in Syria’s civil war.

After his election, Syria’s president Bashar Al Assad said that Mr Trump could potentially be a “natural ally”.

In his final press conference of the year on Friday, US president Barack Obama spoke out against the violence in Syria.

“The Assad regime cannot slaughter its way to legitimacy,” he said. “The Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian allies are trying to obfuscate the truth. The world should not be fooled and the world will not forget.”

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* With additional reporting from Agence France-Presse