Moscow Talks End Without Visible Results

Syrian government representatives and opposition figures concluded four days of meetings in Moscow on Thursday with an agreement to hold another round in Moscow, but no date was set.

“Vitaly Naumkin, the head of the Moscow-based Institute for Eastern Studies who moderated the discussions, said on Thursday that they focused on a platform for future talks and made no attempt to tackle the disputed issues. He said the fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad wasn’t on the agenda,” AP writes. Naumkin said the discussions involved 32 representatives of the opposition and seven officials from the Assad regime.

“It’s already an achievement that those people, who have opposite views, sat down and talked calmly and found some common ground,” he said.

Top opposition groups, including the main Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, have refused to participate in the talks, citing deep distrust of Moscow and saying they would only take part in talks that lead to Assad leaving power. “The issue of fighting terrorism was one of the key themes discussed. This is exactly what brings the sides together as a key challenge to Syria’s territorial integrity and unity,” said Naumkin. “The meeting ended with a declaration of principles shared by all participants, which included support for Syria’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity, a pledge to counter international terrorism, a warning against foreign interference, among others,” Reuters reports.

Previous peace talks held in Geneva almost a year ago failed to produce results or ongoing momentum. Opposition leaders demanded Assad’s departure, while the regime insisted that the focus of the negotiation should be on countering “terrorism,” its term for armed resistance to its rule.

Jabhat al-Nusra Launches Attacks on Western-Backed Rebels Near Aleppo

Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida, launched attacks on a Western-backed rebel group near Aleppo Thursday, seizing positions from the Hazm Movement west of Aleppo, the Daily Star Reports.

Four rebel fighters were killed in clashes that threatened “one of the few remaining pockets of the non-jihadi opposition,” according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In a statement the group said it was forced to escalate its action with Hazm when the group detained two Jabhat al-Nusra fighters.

Hazm, one of the few non-Islamist groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in northern Syria, has “received what it describes as small amounts of military aid from foreign states opposed to Assad, including U.S.-made anti-tank missiles,” the Daily Star writes. It has struggled to retain ground from better equipped and financed jihadist groups.

Hazm was driven out by Jabhat al-Nusra from Idlib province in October when it launched an offensive against the Syria Rebel Front, another Western-backed rebel group that has received weapons and training.

“They want to put an end to the Free Syrian Army,” a Hazm official said. “There have been a number of confrontations before, but this is the biggest.”

“While U.S.-led airstrikes have focused on pushing back ISIS in eastern and northern Syria, the Nusra Front has deepened its influence in the northwest,” Reuters writes.

The Red Cross Steps Up Aid Delivery Inside Syria Under Local Cease-fires

“Syrian authorities and insurgents have allowed the Red Cross to deliver growing amounts of aid under local cease-fires since August, in a possible harbinger of reconciliation in the civil war,” Reuters reports.

“Increasingly and also through the process of local reconciliation, things are opening up,” said Boris Michel, outgoing head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Syria.

“If you want to de-escalate the conflict, you have to start from the local level and build local truces, arrangements, just to stabilize the situation because people are exhausted after four years of conflict and the human cost of it is huge,” he added.

The ICRC has been able to cross front lines to deliver aid repeatedly in the past few months.

“The idea was to negotiate our access from within. We convinced authorities to provide more access to victims so there is more delivery of humanitarian assistance on a needs-based approach, therefore crossing lines across Syria,” he said.

Traction is growing for local cease-fires in Syria as a way to ease Syrians’ suffering in light of the absence of a political solution to end the conflict. The U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has called called for “incremental freeze zones,” starting with Aleppo, calling for a cessation of violence that would allow for increased delivery of humanitarian assistance.

The ICRC, which has 300 staff in Syria, has “played a role in truces in Barzeh, Moadimiya, Yarmouk and Yelda-Babila near Damascus and Al-Waer in Homs.”

Recommended Reads:

• AFP: Syria Kurds Kill 22 Jihadists Around Kobane: Monitor
• AP: Syria Talks End in Moscow Without Visible Results
• Independent: ISIS Hostages: On Syria’s Border, the Sun Goes Down on a Desperate Waiting Game
• Daily Star: Mobilization Efforts on the Rise in Syria’s War of Attrition
• AP: HRW Blasts ISIS for Atrocities; Syrian, Iraqi Governments for Fueling Extremisim