http://www.arabnews.com/node/1176791/middle-east
CAIRO: Syrian factions agreed to a cease-fire in southern Damascus as part of a deal brokered by Cairo and Moscow, Egyptian state media reported on Thursday.
The cease-fire, which includes Jaish Al-Islam, Jaish Ababil and Aknaf Beit Al-Maqdis, went into effect at midday Thursday.
“We announced a preliminary agreement over the will to enter into a cease-fire and de-escalation deal for the area,” said Jaish Al-Islam political leader Mohammed Alloush, adding that details will be worked out in the near future.
The announcement did not name the areas included, and did not mention the Syrian government. There was no immediate comment from Damascus.
Following a meeting with rebel factions, Alloush thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for his role in the negotiations, and for pushing for a political solution to Syria’s war, Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper reported.
Backed by Russia, Iran and Shiite militias, the Syrian government has pushed back rebels across the country over the past year, shoring up its rule over the main urban centers.
A string of cease-fire deals in recent months has eased fighting in western Syria, including a truce in the southwest brokered by Russia and the US.
In recent months, Egypt has held negotiations with several Syrian opposition factions while maintaining good ties with Damascus.
Cairo mediated a cease-fire agreement in August in Eastern Ghouta after hosting talks between Syrian opposition factions and Russia’s Defense Ministry.
“Egypt is placing itself as an impartial meditator in the Syria crisis, and this is being welcomed by regional and international sides of the conflict, except for Turkey,” Egyptian political analyst Sameh Rashed told Arab News.
“Egypt began playing a mediator role in recent months, as the ongoing situation is pushing all sides of the conflict to seek a political solution instead of a military victory.”
Cairo will be in charge of monitoring parties’ commitment to the agreement, Rashed said.
Rebel factions hold a small pocket of territory south of Damascus, bordered to the west by a Daesh enclave and surrounded from the other sides by Syrian government troops and allied forces.
Through a series of military offensives and evacuation deals, the government has cleared out several opposition pockets around the capital.
Thousands of rebels and civilians have poured into rebel-held Idlib province in northwest Syria, transferred out of areas captured by government forces.
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http://www.arabnews.com/node/1176796/middle-east
ANKARA: Turkey is accelerating its military buildup around Idlib with the deployment of more units and drones to determine surveillance points in the Syrian province.
The deployment is part of the de-escalation deal brokered in Astana last month between Ankara, Tehran and Moscow.
On Wednesday, armored personnel carriers and other military vehicles were transferred to border units to increase preparedness, while additional reconnaissance teams entered Syria.
Idlib is mainly controlled by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which rejects the Astana process. Turkey’s operation is mainly aimed at clearing out HTS and implementing a de-escalation zone in the province.
Another Turkish priority is to contain territorial contiguity between the Syrian regions of Afrin and Kobane, which are controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist organization with links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state for more than three decades.
Turkish media report that the army will determine 14 locations in Idlib to establish surveillance points to deploy Turkish soldiers.
Experts are conducting feasibility studies, with unmanned drones flying over the area. Spots where the Turkish military may be vulnerable to attack will also be determined.
Reconnaissance teams are working closely with local forces, and Turkish military units will be stationed on Syrian soil once the feasibility studies are complete, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reported.
Following Operation Euphrates Shield, this is the second time in a year that Turkey’s military has crossed into northern Syria.
“Idlib is important for several reasons,” Oytun Orhan, a researcher on Syria at the Ankara-based think tank Orsam, told Arab News.
“By solving or at least freezing the problem in Idlib, Turkey will avoid the risk of a refugee influx. By deploying the Turkish military on the borders of the de-escalation zone in Idlib, Turkey will prevent a possible YPG advance from Afrin. Also, Ankara will prepare suitable conditions for a future attack on Afrin.”
Given that Turkey’s Idlib operation is in coordination with Russia and Iran, Orhan said it has indirect consent from the Syrian regime.
“So there will be no negative reaction to Turkey’s move. The long-term plan is to divide the radicals from the moderates, then find a political solution to the Syrian conflict. Then Turkey will probably leave Idlib in the context of a political solution.”
Cengiz Tomar, professor of international relations at Marmara University, told Arab News: “The Turkish Army will bear a kind of peacekeeping mission in the region.”
But he does not expect an operation in Afrin anytime soon. “Afrin is under US protection, while Russia still maintains contact with the YPG in the region,” Tomar said.
“HTS has about 10,000 fighters in Idlib. There might be an understanding between it and Turkish forces to pull back to another region because HTS isn’t likely to prefer clashing with them.”
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http://www.arabnews.com/node/1176956/middle-east
BEIRUT: Turkish forces that entered Syria’s Idlib province late on Thursday have started setting up observation positions that appear aimed at containing a Kurdish militia, a senior rebel involved in the operation said early on Friday.
“The allied Turkish armed forces have entered Syrian territory and begun setting up observation posts,” said Mustafa Sejari, an official in a Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group.
Turkey sent a convoy of about 30 military vehicles into rebel-held northwest Syria through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing in Idlib, rebels and a witness said.
President Tayyep Erdogan announced the deployment on Saturday, saying Turkey was conducting a “serious operation” with rebel groups it supports, as part of a “de-escalation” deal it agreed last month with Iran and Russia in Kazakhstan.
Turkey has been a big supporter of rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the war. But since last year Ankara has focused on securing its border, both from jihadists and from Kurdish forces that control much of the frontier area inside Syria.
The Astana agreement with Assad’s foreign allies Russia and Iran involves reducing warfare in several regions of Syria, including Idlib and adjacent swathes of the northwest, the most populous rebel-held area.
Tahrir Al-Sham, a powerful jihadist alliance that controls much of that territory, is not party to the de-escalation deal, and is at odds with some of the rebel groups that Turkey supports.
However, its forces gave an escort to the Turkish convoy late on Thursday, witnesses said, indicating that there might not be any fighting between them.
Residents of northwest Syria and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have reported intense air raids on Idlib and nearby areas for months.
The convoy was heading toward Sheikh Barakat, a high area overlooking rebel-held territory and the Kurdish YPG-controlled canton of Afrin, the witnesses said.
“(Turkey’s deployment is) in line with Astana 6 resolutions to ensure the area is protected from Russian and regime bombing and to foil any attempt by the separatist YPG militias to illegally seize any territory,” said Sejari.
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Main force of Turkish troops enter Syria's Idlib
Turkish trucks carrying rocket systems parked behind earth defenses in Reyhanli, close to the border with Syria’s Idlib province, following the deployment of troops to Syria as part of a monitoring mission. Hatay, Turkey. Oct. 13, 2017.
Syrian jet pilot whose jet crashed in Turkey released from custody
HATAY
A Turkish court early on Oct. 13 decided to release on judicial control a Syrian military pilot whose jet crashed near the Turkish border in March, according to judicial sources.
Mehmet Sufhan, 56, who faces charges of espionage and border violations, was released pending trial, said the source.
Sufhan was found alive after ejecting safely when his jet was reportedly shot down by opposition forces as it took off from the port city of Latakia to strike Idlib on March 4.
After being found and undergoing medical treatment, he was remanded in custody.
