Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Russia and the US should pull their troops out of Syria following the joint statement adopted by the two countries’ presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, which says that there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict.
Turkish President Calls on Russia, US to Pull Troops Out of Syria
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"It is hard for me to understand such statements. If a military solution cannot help find a way out of the crisis, then those who think so should pull their troops out of Syria," the Turkish leader said, as cited by the Haberturk TV channel.
Putin and Trump adopted a joint statement on Syria on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam’s Da Nang on November 11.
According to the document, "the presidents agreed that there is no military solution to the conflict in Syria." "They confirmed that the ultimate political solution to the conflict must be forged through the Geneva process pursuant to UNSCR [United Nations Security Council Resolution] 2254," the document read.
Putin and Trump "also took note of President Assad’s recent commitment to the Geneva process and constitutional reform and elections as called for under UNSCR 2254."
According to the joint statement, the two leaders "affirmed that these steps must include full implementation of UNSCR 2254, including constitutional reform and free and fair elections under UN supervision, held to the highest international standards of transparency, with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to participate."
Moscow and Washington discussed the de-escalation zone in Syria’s Southwest and the text of the deal is open for the public, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday.
Russia, US Discuss De-Escalation Zone in Southwestern Syria
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"In particular, we discussed with the Americans a mechanism of the de-escalation zone’s operation in Syria’s Southwest," Lavrov said, TASS reported.
"This is an open agreement and its text is available," Lavrov said, adding that representatives of Jordan also took part in hammering out the deal.
"Informal consultations were held with Israel taking into consideration that this zone is in direct proximity to the Golan Heights," he said.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he has made clear to the US and Russia that Tel Aviv will continue to "act in Syria."
Benjamin Netanyahu Tells US and Russia: Israel Will Continue 'Acting in Syria'
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"We are controlling our borders, we are protecting our country and we will continue to do so," Netanyahu said in remarks to members of his right-wing Likud party, RT reported.
"I have also informed our friends, firstly in Washington and also our friends in Moscow, that Israel will act in Syria, including in Southern Syria, according to our understanding and according to our security needs," he added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow has not promised to ensure a withdrawal of pro-Iran forces from Syria.
Russia: No Promise on Withdrawal of Pro-Iran Forces from Syria
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Lavrov said that there have been no discussions on the withdrawal of the pro-Iran forces from Syria at the recent talks with the US.
When commenting on the statements issued by the US Department of State, concerning some agreements made with Russia about the withdrawal of the pro-Iranian forces from Syria, Lavrov said that
"we discussed neither Iran no any pro-Iranian forces."
"If we talk about the pro-Iranian forces, then some will be tempted to call the entire Syrian army pro-Iranian. And then what? Will it have to surrender? This is what they call wishful thinking," the Russian top diplomat was quoted as saying by TASS.
A written statement issued on the sidelines of the APEC summit by the Russian and US Presidents said earlier today that the Syrian conflict does not have a military solution.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters that the United States has no plans to carry out military patrolling in Syria's de-escalation zones.
US Has No Plans to Carry Out Military Patrolling in Syrian De-Escalation Zones
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"That has not been discussed, the US military policing them," he said, Sputnik reported.
When asked about the US strategy on Syria's de-escalation zones, the defense secretary stressed that it is worth expanding them in order to let civilians return home.
"You keep broadening them. You try to de-mil one area and then de-mil another, and just keep it going, try to do the things that will allow people to return to one [another]," Mattis added.
The Defense Secretary reminded that such a zone has been established in Southwestern Syria, however, there are no guarantees that a similar zone can be established in some other area. "The ones down in the Southwest, which, you know obviously has Russian MP's [military police] down there, and that sort of thing, but each area is different, so you won't have a template where one size fits all, and that can be looked at," Mattis underlined.
The U.S.’ military presence in Syria violates the country’s territorial sovereignty and UN Charter, the Syrian Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday.
Syrian FM fires back at US over timetable to leave country
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-fm-fires-back-us-timetable-leave-country/
“The U.S. military presence and the presence of any military in Syria without government approval is a direct assault on its sovereignty and a violation of the UN Charter,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry stated.
“On the contrary, this presence only leads to prolonging the crisis and further complicating it, and this is where the real goal of this U.S. presence in Syria lies,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry added.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry’s statement comes just 24 hours after the U.S’ Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, claimed the U.S. military will remain in Syria until a settlement is made.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced that the US military are not planning to leave Syria until the Syrian settlement process in Geneva brings success.
US Military Not Planning to Leave Syria Until Geneva Process Success
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US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters on Monday that the US military would only leave Syria after it is evident the Syrian settlement process in Geneva is successful, Sputnik reported.
"We're not just going to walk away right now before the Geneva process has cracked. That doesn't mean everyone stays there. That doesn't mean for certain — certain troops are leaving. I'm just saying that we're going to condition — and I've honestly not made those decisions. We're going to make sure we set the conditions for a diplomatic solution… Not just, you know, fight the cop part of it and then say good luck on the rest of it. We did it for that — to support the diplomatic solution," Mattis said.
The US-led coalition of 68 nations has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be the positions of Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) inside Syria
since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.
On Monday, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said that the US military will remain in Syria until the situation is resolved by the Geneva process under the aegis of the UN. However, this information does not prove to be relevant.
Ex-UN Director-General Calls James Mattis a 'Laughingstock' for Remarks on Syria
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Former UN Director-General Sergei Ordzhonikidze said that Jim
Mattis made himself a "laughingstock" by saying the United Nations allegedly approved the presence of the country’s forces in Syria.
He just doesn't understand or know what he is saying, and apparently he has no decent advisers who could tell him how to act… It is, I believe, just a shame to say things like this, for such a large state, a superpower, like the United States," Ordzhonikidze stressed.
Moreover, he added that
the United States presence in Syria was illegal and was "an attempt to justify in an awkward way the illegal stay of US-led coalition forces in Syria".
Meanwhile, on Monday, James Mattis said that the presence of the United States in Syria had been approved by the United Nations as Washington was engaged in the fight against Daesh (outlawed in Russia) terrorist group.
Nouralddeen al-Zinki members and other terrorists of Al-Nusra Front (Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at or the Levant Liberation Board) resumed clashes on Tuesday after a daylong halt in hostilities in the region.
Rival Terrorist Groups Resume Infighting in Northern Syria
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Al-Zinki and Al-Nusra exchanged heavy fire near the 111th regiment base, the small town of Dar al-Izzah, the village of Taqad, in a region near the villages of Ajel, Tadil and Oweijel and the small towns of Kafr Naha and al-Abzqamou in Western Aleppo.
Meanwhile,
Al-Nusra dispatched a large number of forces and military hardware, including tanks and vehicles to the battlefields in Western Aleppo and Northern Idlib to face al-Zinki fighters. Also, al-Zinki sent its military equipment to the village of Taqad in Western Aleppo and clashed with Al-Nusra in the village of Kafr Natin.
The two rival terrorist groups reached an agreement on ending clashes yesterday.
Dissident-affiliated websites reported on Monday that Nouralddeen al-Zinki members and other terrorists of Al-Nusra Front engaged in a fresh round of clashes in Aleppo and Idlib provinces,
inflicting over 100 casualties on both warring sides.
In the meantime, Nouralddeen al-Zinki managed to drive Al-Nusra from the village of Taqad in Western Aleppo.
Fighting between various non-state actors in rural Aleppo, Syria has interrupted humanitarian activities, UN Secretary-General’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Monday.
Increased Fighting in Syria's Aleppo Interrupts Humanitarian Activities
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Apart from having a negative impact on the security situation in the region, clashes between non-state actors in rural Aleppo, Syria has interrupted humanitarian activities, according to UN Secretary-General’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
"We are concerned about the protection and well-being of civilians in Atareb, rural Aleppo, following reports of infighting between different non-state armed groups over the past five days," Dujarric said.
"Shelling on populated cities and towns in the area is affecting civilian movement, including commercial activities and it has interrupted humanitarian activities in the area due to the clashes and road blocks."
Dujarric added that as a result of the worsened situation,
schools in rural Aleppo have suspended classes.
On Sunday, a UN-International Committee of the Red Cross-Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy delivered assistance for 21,500 of the approximately 90,000 people in need of aid in Duma city in the besieged East Ghouta of rural Damascus.
People in a town in Northeastern Aleppo took to the streets, opposing forced recruitment by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), local sources reported on Monday.
Popular Uprising Reported against SDF's Forced Recruitment in Northern Syria
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The sources said that a large number of residents of the town of Kobani (Ein al-Arab) took to the streets, condemning the SDF's forced recruitment in the region.
The source said that the demonstration in Kobani was carried out to support the same move in the town of Manbij, adding that people in Kobani also condemned the SDF's intention to secede the region from Syria.
Unlike Manbij where 95 percent of people are Arab, most of residents in Ein al-Arab are Kurds.
The militant-affiliated websites reported that people in the town of Manbij and several villages in Northeastern Aleppo demonstrated against forced recruitment by the SDF in the region. The shops and businesses in the region were also closed to oppose the SDF's move, the websites reported.
The websites further said that following the strikes, demonstrations and tensions in the region,
the SDF threatened Manbij's resident that it will arrest women as recruits if men do not obey the forced recruitment rule approved by the Kurdish Forces Legislative Council.
The ISIL terrorist group has handed over Syria's second largest oilfield in Deir Ezzur province to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) within the framework of an agreement, dissident-affiliated websites reported on Tuesday.
Deir Ezzur: ISIL Hands over Syria's Second Largest Oilfield to SDF
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The websites reported that
the ISIL delivered control of al-Tanak oilfield, Syria's second largest oilfield, to the SDF without any clashes in line with an agreement that envisages surrendering their positions to the US-back forces.
The oilfield is located 35km East of Deir Ezzur city.
The Arabic-language Lebanon-based al-Akhbar paper wrote on Friday that ISIL withdrew from the town of Merkadah in Southern Hasaka and surrendered control to the SDF within the framework of an agreement that envisages delivering control of its regions to the SDF without any battle.
Merkadah is located along the al-Khabour River and was the last stronghold of ISIL in Hasaka. The town is on the administrative borderline between the provinces of Hasaka and Deir Ezzur.
After withdrawal from Merkadah, ISIL is only in control of desert-like regions in Hasaka and Deir Ezzur provinces along the border with Iraq.
The SDF did not comment on ISIL's withdrawal, but the Deir Ezzur Military Council announced that they were ready to face the Syrian Army troops and popular forces in the province.
Kurds had been trying to take control over Merkadah since long time ago.
Hundreds of suspected members of the Daesh terror group and thousands of their family members were allowed to flee Raqqa in convoys arranged by US-backed forces in the days before the city fell to coalition forces, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon told reporters on Tuesday.
Hundreds of Suspect Daesh Fighters Allowed to Exit Raqqa, 4 Detained
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Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon essentially confirmed a BBC report that 250 Daesh fighters and thousands of family members, along with weapons and other supplies, were disbursed throughout Syria in a series of convoys that were arranged by US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in an attempt to reduce bloodshed in the final days of the battle for Raqqa.
"In the course of that screening there were four foreign fighters that were identified and detained by the Syrian Democratic Forces," Dillon said. "Out of the rest of the 3,500 civilians that came out of Raqqa at that time, approximately less than 300 were identified and screened as potential ISIS [Daesh] fighters."
As part of the agreement, male evacuees were screened and processed for biometric data, Dillon said.
With remaining Daesh fighters evacuated, the US-led coalition announced in October that the terror group’s self-declared capital of Raqqa had been liberated.
Later that month, the Syrian news agency SANA reported, citing an official source at the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry, that the Syrian government would consider Raqqa an occupied city until it comes under the control of the Syrian army.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that it had gathering evidence indicating the US Air Force had allowed over 100 ISIS vehicles to escape Abu Kamal City last week.
US Air Force refused to take out massive ISIS convoy in Deir Ezzor: Russia
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According to Russia, the US refused to carry out any airstrikes on the convoy, spotted leaving towards the Wadi es-Sabha passage on the border with Iraq, and added that Russian warplanes were prevented from doing so to.
“Americans peremptorily rejected to conduct airstrikes over the ISIS terrorists on the pretext of the fact that, according to their information, militants are yielding themselves prisoners to them and now are subject to the provisions of the Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Russia said it had addressed the US-led coalition twice with a proposal of carrying out joint air raids to eliminate the retreating ISIS convoy, but was turned down, allowing jihadist hundreds of militants to travel undeterred along the Euphrates River. Furthermore, the US was accused of hampering the Russian Air Force’s activities in southern Deir Ezzor.
“There is indisputable evidence that the United States pretends it is waging irreconcilable struggle against international terrorism in front of the international community, while in reality it provides cover for the combat-ready Islamic State groups to let them regain strength, regroup themselves and advance US interests in the Middle East,” the ministry said.
On Tuesday, Islamist factions began a counter-attack near the town of Kafr Hawar southwest of Damascus amid a to expand their Beit Jinn pocket by thrusting into government-held turf.
Islamist rebels capture five Syrian troops near the Golan Heights
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Amateur footage uploaded by a fighter loyal to Jaish Al-Haramoun shows what he claimed to be five soldiers of the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) 4th mechanized Division that were captured alive during the counter-attack this morning.
The troops were shown handcuffed as prisoners-of-war before the camera.
Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) was also involved in the fighting; preliminary reports that suggest government forces have lost an armored vehicle, type ‘ZSU-23-4 Shilka’, as jihadist militants swarmed and captured an SAA outpost in the mountainous area, located just outside the Golan Heights.
Over the past weeks, the SAA has kicked off repeated assaults to eliminate the Beit Jinn pocket but thus far, the pro-government attacks have simply spawned a similar number of HTS counter-attacks, rendering neither side able to advance significantly on the battlefield.
