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Assad is defiant ahead of peace discussion scheduled for Monday in Moscow Kurds drive Islamic State fighters from strategic town of Kobane
(about 4 hours later)
BEIRUT — Syria’s president has played down expectations for a breakthrough during what have been billed as preliminary peace talks for ending his country’s civil war that were scheduled to begin Monday in Moscow. The key Syrian border town of Kobane, the main focus of U.S. airstrikes in Syria for the past four months, has been retaken from the Islamic State by Kurdish forces, according to the U.S. Central Command and Kurdish activists.
In a defiant interview published Monday in Foreign Affairs magazine, Bashar al-Assad describes the Russia-led gathering as mere “preparations” rather than full-fledged talks for ending a conflict that has killed an estimated 220,000 people, wounded more than a million and displaced nearly half of Syria’s population. “Anti-ISIL forces now control approximately 90 percent” of Kobane, the Central Command said in a Monday evening statement. It thanked Kurdish forces for what it called an Islamic State “failure” that had denied the militants “one of their strategic objectives.” ISIL is an acronym for the Islamic State.
He also calls rebels who are backed by Western and Arab countries “puppets” in comments that cast further doubt over the Russian initiative, which many opposition groups, including the Turkey-based National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, have vowed to boycott. Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union announced on Twitter that “the city of Kobane is fully liberated.”
Those who are boycotting the meeting said that the opposition figures in attendance are little more than mildly critical loyalists of the Assad government. Kurds across the border in the Turkish town of Suruc, many of them among the more than 100,000 refugees forced to flee the Islamic State onslaught that began in September, celebrated with fireworks and dancing in the streets.
The victory, if it holds, is important for both sides in the Syria conflict. Late last year, the Islamic State had claimed total control over Kobane, posting Internet videos showing its flags flying across the town. Defeat deprives the militants of a key border crossing into Turkey, as well as an anticipated symbolic triumph over U.S. air power.
The Obama administration had declared Kobane both a military target and a “moral” imperative after Islamic State forces overran the Kurdish-populated region, executing many civilians who did not flee for their lives.
As militants continued to pour into the area, the Pentagon described it as the most target-rich environment in Syria. Nearly 75 percent of 954 strikes in Syria by U.S. and Arab warplanes since September — the vast majority of them by the United States — have targeted the area in and around Kobane.
Late Monday, Islamic State fighters appeared to maintain a presence on the eastern edges of the town and in a swath of small rural villages that were snatched in their lightening advance before the air attacks began.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Kurdish fighters were still combing buildings in the eastern suburbs of Kobane, dismantling and detonating explosives left by the militants.
The observatory said that more than 1,300 fighters had died in the months-long battle, nearly 1,000 of them from the Islamic State. “Large parts of the city have become uninhabitable due to U.S. and Arab . . . air raids, detonation of booby-trapped vehicles and mutual shelling” by the forces on the ground.
Meanwhile, in a defiant interview published Monday in Foreign Affairs magazine, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad played down expectations for a breakthrough in ending the country’s larger civil war during what have been billed as preliminary peace talks scheduled to begin Monday in Moscow.
Assad described the Russia-led gathering as mere “preparations” rather than full-fledged talks for ending a conflict that has killed an estimated 220,000 people, wounded more than a million and displaced nearly half of Syria’s population.
U.S-backed opposition forces fighting the Syrian military are “puppets,” Assad said, in comments that cast further doubt over the Russian initiative. Many opposition groups, including the Turkey-based National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, have vowed to boycott the meeting, saying that those in attendance are little more than mildly critical loyalists of the Assad government.
Even the special United Nations envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, would not be attending, his office confirmed. He has proposed his own plan for ending the conflict, which involves implementing local “freezes” in fighting between government and rebel forces.Even the special United Nations envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, would not be attending, his office confirmed. He has proposed his own plan for ending the conflict, which involves implementing local “freezes” in fighting between government and rebel forces.
“What is going on in Moscow is not negotiations about the solution; it’s only preparations for the conference,” the Syrian president told the U.S. magazine, adding that he’s dismissive of negotiations with any group that he considers to be a “puppet of Qatar or Saudi Arabia or any Western country.”
The four-day initiative is a result of weeks of diplomacy by Russia, which has joined Iran in aiding the Assad regime with money and weaponry against an uprising that began in 2011. The initiative has received tentative backing from U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who earlier this month said he hoped the Russian efforts “could be helpful.”The four-day initiative is a result of weeks of diplomacy by Russia, which has joined Iran in aiding the Assad regime with money and weaponry against an uprising that began in 2011. The initiative has received tentative backing from U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who earlier this month said he hoped the Russian efforts “could be helpful.”
The Russian initiative follows the collapse last year of two rounds of U.S.-sponsored peace talks held in Geneva. Mohammed Sabra, who represented the opposition in those talks, said that the Moscow meetings are an attempt by world powers – including the United States – to conspire to keep Assad “in power longer.” The Russian initiative follows the collapse last year of two rounds of U.S.-sponsored peace talks held in Geneva. Mohammed Sabra, who represented the opposition in those talks, said in a telephone interview that the Moscow meetings are an attempt by world powers, including the United States, to conspire to keep Assad “in power longer.”
“Not a single person who represented the opposition in Geneva is attending this meeting,” he said by telephone. Groups like the Syrian Opposition Coalition have lost credibility among backers in the West and the Arab world, in part because they lack influence among rebels groups inside Syria.
Groups like the Syrian National Coalition have lost credibility among backers in the West and the Arab world, in part because they lack influence among rebels groups inside Syria. Analysts said Kerry’s comments suggest a shift in U.S. policy away from calling on Assad to step down as part of a solution to the Syrian crisis. That shift, the analysts said, appears to be driven by rising concern in Washington over the ascendancy of radical groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda’s wing in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, which have wrested control of significant amounts of Syrian territory from moderate rebel groups.
Analysts said Kerry’s comments suggest a shift in U.S. policy away from calling on Assad to step down as part of a solution to the Syrian crisis. That shift, the analyst said, appears to be driven by rising concern in Washington over the ascendancy of radical groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda’s wing in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, which have wrested control of significant amounts of Syrian territory from moderate rebel groups. Naylor reported from Beirut. Liz Sly in Istanbul and Sam Alrefaie in Beirut contributed to this report.
The United States leads a coalition of countries that has been carrying out airstrikes in Syria as well as Iraq against the Islamic State. To the dismay of Syrian rebels, that coalition does not target Assad regime forces.
In a significant victory for the coalition and their Kurdish partners, Kurdish fighters announced Monday that they had ousted Islamic State militants from the key Syrian border town of Kobani after a four-month fight, according to the Associated Press.
A senior U.S. official said the Kurds controlled most of the town and have consolidated control, particularly in the central and southern areas, the AP report said. The official said Islamic State militants still have a considerable presence in outlying areas around Kobani and are still putting up stiff resistance to the Kurds in those pockets outside it.
On Monday, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, also sought to lower expectations of a breakthrough at the four-day meeting. At a news conference, the Associated Press reported, he said that these “are not talks; it is a meeting.” He added that the first phase of the discussions would be held among opposition figures, who would then form “common approaches toward talks with the government.”
It was unclear exactly which figures who say they are representing the opposition would be attending.
Citing comments by Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, Syria’s state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported that 28 unspecified opposition representatives would be in attendance. Those figures could meet in the Russian capital Wednesday with Syrian government officials, the news agency reported.
A spokeswoman for de Mistura confirmed that someone else from the U.N. envoy’s office would attend the Moscow talks. Earlier this month, de Mistura welcomed the Russian peace efforts as a “serious initiative.”
“The office of the special envoy has not been involved in the preparations and invitations for this” meeting in Russia, said a Juliette S. Touma, spokeswoman for the de Mistura.
In his interview with Foreign Affairs, Assad expresses apparent desire for cooperation with the U.S-led coalition that targets the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, saying that “potential is definitely always there.” But he faults Washington for a lack of seriousness in fighting extremists, alleging that it has not pressured Turkey to stop funneling aid to radicals inside Syria.
“Did the United States put any pressure on Turkey to stop the support of al-Qaeda? They didn’t; they haven’t,” he says.
In the interview, Assad also describes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — a harsh critic of the Syrian president — as “very fanatical” and a leader who “supports ISIS.”
Both ISIS and ISIL are acronyms for the Islamic State.
Sam Alrefaie contributed to this report.