Syrian rebels pull out of talks on peace negotiations over truce ‘violations’

In a signed statement issued on Monday, rebels groups including Army of Islam, Faylaq Al Sham, and the Sultan Murad Brigade, which is close to Turkey, declared they were withdrawing from preparatory talks before negotiations set for later this month

A Syrian man rides a motorbike past a cemetery in the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of Damascus, on January 3, 2017. Abd Doumany/AFP

BEIRUT // A dozen Syrian rebel factions have pulled out of talks on new peace negotiations, accusing president Bashar Al Assad’s regime of violating a four-day-old ceasefire with attacks near Damascus that continued on Tuesday.

The decision threatens the process sponsored by Syria’s ally, Russia, and rebel backer Turkey, which began with a truce and is meant to lead to negotiations later this month in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

In a signed statement issued on Monday, the rebels groups including Army of Islam, Faylaq Al Sham, and the Sultan Murad Brigade, which is close to Turkey, declared they were withdrawing from preparatory talks before those negotiations.

“As these violations are continuing, the rebel factions announce ... the freezing of all discussion linked to the Astana negotiations,” they said. The rebels said they “respected the ceasefire across the whole of Syria ... but the regime and its allies have not stopped shooting and have launched major and frequent violations, notably in the [rebel] regions of Wadi Barada and Eastern Ghouta”, near Damascus.

“If things don’t return to how they were before, the accord will be considered null and void.”

The ceasefire has brought quiet to large parts of the country but has been undermined by sporadic violence, particularly in the Wadi Barada region north of Damascus, an area that is the main water source for the capital.

Government forces backed by Hizbollah fighters have continued to press a two-week-old offensive despite the ceasefire which began on December 30.

The fighting in Wadi Barada continued on Tuesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring service based in Britain. Government forces had advanced to the outskirts of Ain Al Fijeh spring, the main water source in the area, and were attacking with helicopters and artillery fire.

Syria’s government accuses rebels in Wadi Barada of deliberately targeting infrastructure there, poisoning the water supply with fuel and then cutting the flow to Damascus altogether.

Rebels say government strikes caused the damage, which has left four million people in Damascus without water since December 22.

The regime says forces in Wadi Barada include former Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fatah Al Sham, although opposition fighters deny the group is present. Like ISIL, Fatah Al Sham is excluded from the truce.

On Tuesday, an air strike in the northwestern province of Idlib killed at least 25 members of Fatah Al Sham, the Observatory said.

Unidentified aircraft hit one of the group’s most important bases in Syria as leading members were holding a meeting there, according to Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman, who did not identify them.

Fateh Al Sham used its Telegram account to accuse the US-led coalition of carrying out the raid.

“More than 20 martyrs after the crusader coalition targeted a central base in the north Idlib countryside,” it said.

Mr Abdel Rahman warned the truce was in a “critical phase” and faced collapse if sponsors Russia and Turkey did not intervene to save it.

Ceasefire violations elsewhere in the country on Tuesday included air strikes on the town of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib province that killed a pregnant woman and wounded three other civilians, and rebel fire on two villages in Hama province in central Syria.

Despite backing opposite sides in the conflict, Ankara and Moscow have worked closely of late on the war, jointly brokering a deal that allowed civilians and rebels to leave Aleppo before it was retaken by the government last month.

The process has also received the blessing of the UN Security Council, even though separate, UN-sponsored talks are set to resume in Geneva in February.

* Agence France-Presse