U.N. Special Envoy Says Assad Part of the Solution to Ending Conflict in Syria

The United Nations Special Envoy said on Friday that President Bashar al-Assad must be part of the solution for ending the war there, the New York Times reports.

“I am not talking about a final solution,” Staffan de Mistura told Reuters by phone. “That is something that only the Syrians, if you had asked me, would have to decide upon. The main point was he is part of the solution in reducing violence.”

De Mistura is trying to advance a proposal for local cease-fire or “incremental freeze zones” across Syria, starting with the city of Aleppo, in an attempt to halt the fighting in the country and provide humanitarian aid to civilians.

De Mistura’s spokeswoman, Juliette Touma, said he was referring “not to the broader solution but to short-term efforts to de-escalate the violence, beginning with a proposed freeze in fighting in the divided northern city of Aleppo,” the New York Times writes.

Referring to Assad, she added, “For the de-escalation of violence, he needs to be part of the solution” as a representative of the Syrian authorities.

Opponents of the Assad regime have grown increasingly angry and frustrated as the global attention on Syria has shifted to the Islamic State and groups like Human Rights Watch have reported that more civilians have been killed in government airstrikes than at the hands of the Islamic State.

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.

De Mistura’s comments come following a particularly gruesome week in the Damascus suburbs, where more than 350 people in Douma were killed in government airstrikes.

Dozens of Government and Insurgent Fighters Killed in Clashes in Southern Syria

Dozens of government and insurgent fighters have been killed the past week in clashes in southern Syria, Reuters reports.

The Syrian army backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters launched a major offensive in the region last week against insurgent groups, including al-Qaida’s Syria wing Jabhat al-Nusra.

The battle is significant because the south is one of the few areas where mainstream, non-jihadist rebels have retained a foothold against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The rebels are portrayed as being the most organized of all the mainstream armed opposition forces fighting the regime.

More than 50 rebels have been killed in the fighting, Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said. Forty-three members of the Syrian army and its allied groups had also died, including 12 officers.

“Now the weather is better, there will be Syrian airstrikes. With the airstrikes they will move forward,” he said. According to Abdulrahman, around 5,000 pro-government troops were taking part in the offensive that “aims to take a triangle of rebel-held land from rural areas southwest of Damascus to Deraa city to Quneitra.”

Last week Syrian state news agency SANA said that government forces seized the town of Deir al-Adas and the village of Deir Makar, as well as the nearby areas of Tal al-Arous and Tal al-Sarjeh south of the capital, adding that the gains severed supply and communication lines among “terrorist outposts” in the Damascus countryside, Deraa province and Qunaitra.

“Sources on both sides of the southern battlefront said the offensive aimed to shield the capital, Damascus, a short drive to the north. The insurgents had made significant gains in the south in recent months, taking several military bases,” Reuters writes.

Kurdish, Syrian Rebels Edge Into Islamic State Stronghold Raqqa

Dozens of Islamic State jihadists were killed in clashes with Syrian Kurdish forces around the town of Kobani, AFP reports.

Kurdish forces backed by Syrian insurgent groups captured the strategic Tal Baghdaq hilltop, a hill south of Kobani which lies within Raqqa province, the de facto capital of the Islamic State, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“It is the first time they got into Raqqa,” the Observatory’s founder, Rami Abdulrahman said.

According to the monitoring group, at least 22 jihadists were killed in fighting on the border between Aleppo and Raqqa province. The battle marks the first time Kurdish forces have expanded their attacks to the edge of Raqqa province.

The Kurdish forces, supported by U.S.-led airstrikes, drove Islamic State fighters from the town of Kobani last month near the Turkish border and have pushed them back from surrounding villages in northern Syria. Since the town’s recapture, Kurdish forces have been expanding their control from Kobani into the surrounding countryside.

Recommended Reads:

• BBC: What Assad Really Thinks About Syria’s War
• AFP: Rights Groups in Campaign to Free Syria Activists
• Reuters: Kurds, Syrians Edge into Islamic State Stronghold: Monitor
• Daily Star: Hariri Blasts Hezbollah’s Role in Syria as Madness
• Guardian: U.S. Led Airstrikes Destroy Key ISIS Targets in Syria and Iraq
• AFP: 35 ISIS Jihadists Killed in Clashes With Syria Kurds: Monitor
• BBC: Israeli Hospital Rebuilds Injured Syrian Man’s Face
• NPR: The Stories of Four Syrians Families Who Can’t Go Home
• Al Monitor: U.N., Russia Take Lead in Syria Diplomacy
• The Atlantic: Love in the Time of Civil War
• Reuters: Bomb Blasts Hit Checkpoint Near Syrian Border, Three Hurt: Sources

Photo Courtesy of AP Images