Government Offers Prisoner Exchange

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said that the government is ready to offer a prisoner exchange with rebel groups.

The BBC reports that Muallem “also said he had presented a cease-fire plan for the second city, Aleppo, to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. The moves came as the opposition Syrian National Coalition meets in Istanbul to decide whether to go to next week’s peace conference. The coalition is under Western pressure to participate in the Geneva II talks. However, many of its members have already pulled out.

“Some are reluctant to go unless President Bashar al-Assad is excluded from any transitional government, but Damascus says there should be no preconditions for the talks.”

Syrian War’s Private Donors Lose Faith

Elizabeth Dickinson reports for the New Yorker on the disillusionment of the Syrian war’s Gulf-based private donors.

“Since the Syrian revolution began in 2011, private Kuwaiti donors like Herbash have been among its most generous patrons, providing what likely amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars to the armed opponents of Assad. The majority of Kuwaitis – like most of the rebels – are Sunni; the Syrian regime and its army are predominantly Alawites, a small Shiite sect that counts Assad among its members. With its open political atmosphere and its weak terror-financing laws, Kuwait also serves as a hub for private donors across the Gulf,” she writes.

“Dalaa al-Mufti, a liberal Syrian-Kuwaiti writer, told me that this disillusionment has affected humanitarian aid as well. A year ago, so many donated blankets had piled up on the back staircase of her well-manicured home that her family had trouble going up and down. Mufti had independently solicited money and supplies from her friends and family and, eventually, from the general public. (She sent it to Syria through a network of expatriates based in Kuwait.) When I first met her, in February of 2013, she told me that Kuwaitis were so desperate to give that she spent all day fielding text messages and tweets about donations. One Kuwaiti woman, Mufti remembered, began to cry on the phone, worried that she wasn’t doing enough to help the Syrian people. When asking for donations, Mufti told me at the time, ‘I’ve never heard a no.’

“But now the contributions have dried up.”

Syrian Rebels Say Cease-Fire Deals Prove Deceptive 

Anne Barnard of the New York Times reports on the Syrian rebels’ skepticism towards the government’s offer of a cease-fire.

“Residents and rebel officials in some of the communities described in interviews a disturbing pattern in which the government has used the cease-fires as cover for an operation intended to attain a victory it could not achieve any other way,” she writes.

“The government rains aerial attacks on areas that refuse cease-fire offers. People in places that accept can find themselves facing new demands: to turn over wanted men, give up their light weapons and accept a military governor. Food is delivered piecemeal to retain the government’s leverage. Rather than a mutually agreed cease-fire, one rebel leader said, it seemed ‘more like surrender.’”

Rocket Fired from Syria Kills Seven in Lebanese Border Town

Reuters reports on a rocket from Syria killing seven people in the increasingly tense Lebanese border town of Arsal.

“At least 10 rockets have struck Lebanese frontier areas, according to local security sources, in further spillover from Syria’s civil war that has raised tensions across Lebanon,” the wire says.

“With sectarian sympathies aligning different Lebanese groups with Syria’s warring parties, spillover has become increasingly frequent. Lebanon is now coping with increased car bombings, some of them hitting the heart of the capital, Beirut.”

Suggested Reads from Our Editorial Team:

Reuters: Russia Steps Up Military Lifeline to Syria’s Assad

NY Times: Kerry Offers Assurances As Syria Talks Near

Al Monitor: Splits in Syrian Opposition Coalition Ahead of Vote