Turkey and Iran Accuse Each Other’s Allies of Violating Truce

Repeated cease-fire violations by Syrian government and allied forces could derail peace talks scheduled for later this month, Turkey warned on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

Turkey, Russia and Iran are guarantors of a cease-fire launched last Friday between government and opposition forces that will be followed by peace talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana on January 23. Turkey backs factions of the Syrian opposition, while Russia and Iran are key backers of the Syrian government.

Turkish prime minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused pro-government forces of jeopardizing the deal and called on Iran to restrain its allies, telling the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency the deal “might fail if we cannot stop the escalating violations.”

Pro-government forces have pushed forward with an operation against rebel-held territory in the Barada Valley region, northwest of Damascus, in spite of the cease-fire, claiming the area is not part of the deal. The cease-fire agreement excludes the so-called Islamic State and the former al-Qaida affiliate in Syria known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.

Iran referred to Turkey’s accusations as “unconstructive,” saying rebels were violating the cease-fire deal, Agence-France Presse reported.

“(Turkey) should take necessary measures to deal with several instances of cease-fire violation by these groups and at the same time refrain from taking unreal stances and accusing other parties,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said.

Thousands of Families Return to an Eastern Aleppo Destroyed ‘Beyond Imagination,’ U.N. Official Says

Thousands of internally displaced people are returning to neighborhoods formerly held by rebels in Aleppo city according to the U.N., Reuters reported.

Freezing weather and destruction “beyond imagination” have not put off nearly 2,200 families from returning to eastern Aleppo, said Sajjad Malik, Syria representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

“People are coming out to east Aleppo to see their shops, their houses, to see if the building is standing and the house is not that looted … to see, should they come back,” he said. “The houses people are going back to have no windows or doors, no cooking facilities.”

The Syrian government took complete control of Aleppo city last month following a four-year battle with rebel forces in eastern parts of the city. Tens of thousands of people were reportedly displaced in the final government offensive, fleeing to other government-held areas as well as to Kurdish-controlled neighborhoods and rebel-held Idlib province.

Reconstruction of the war-torn city will take time, Malik told Reuters, with houses, hospitals, schools and roads having been destroyed by the bombing.

“Nothing would have prepared us to see the scale of destruction there. It’s beyond imagination,” he said.

Government Gives Rebel-Held Towns South of Capital Three-Day Ultimatum

Rebel groups in suburbs south of Damascus have three days to agree to a reconciliatory truce with the government, according to the pro-Syrian state news site al-Watan.

More than 100 rebels and their families from the capital’s southwestern suburbs who refused to accept the government’s conditions (“settle”) were evacuated to the northern province of Idlib.

According to al-Watan, the truce deal allows rebels and their families to remain if they “settle,” with special conditions for people who are wanted by government security forces or for military conscription.

The government has given the rebel-held towns of Yelda, Babila and Beit Saham a three-day ultimatum to decide whether they want to settle or evacuate. Idlib province is controlled by an alliance of rebel factions including Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.

RECOMMENDED READS:

• The New York Times: A New Casualty of Syria’s War: Drinking Water in Damascus
• The Washington Post: A Once-Beautiful Valley in Syria Is Now a Microcosm of the Country’s War
• Syria Comment: Local Loyalist Militias of Suwayda’
• Reuters: Forced Far From Home, Syrians Struggle to Start Over in Idlib
• Al-Jumhuryia: Mechanisms of Justice for Syria’s War Crimes