Syria’s Assad seeks truce with civilians

Move seen as latest weapon against rebels; al-Qaida calls for stop to infighting

BEIRUT - In the leadup to the so-called Geneva II peace conference this week, the Syrian government has quietly pursued a campaign of truce-making with opposition-held communities in and around Damascus that some observers say could further weaken the opposition movement and bolster President Bashar Assad’s global standing.

Meanwhile, the head of an al-Qaida-linked group in Syria reached out to rival rebel groups that have been engaged in a bloody battle with his fighters this month, calling for the two sides to end their infighting and instead unite against the government and its allies.

For months, the government has been negotiating cease-fires with civilian leaders of neighborhoods and suburbs of the capital that have been under the control of opposition fighters and therefore under bombardment and sieges that have kept food and medicine from reaching residents.

In what some in the opposition view as the latest setback for the uprising against Assad, deals have been struck with civilian committees or activists to raise the government flag, hand over weapons or expel rebel fighters in exchange for essential supplies and an end to the government attacks.

Just as the deal with world powers to remove Syria’s chemical weapons made Assad a partner with some of the very nations that have called for him to resign, these local truces could help reassert his legitimacy not only at the coming peace conference but also in this year’s presidential vote. Assad has not ruled out running for reelection.

“The regime is trying to pacify the situation on the ground before it goes to Geneva II,” said Susan Ahmad, an activist in Damascus. Assad “wants to give the illusion to the international community that he is in control of a large part of the country, even if it’s superficial. This way he can negotiate with a strong tone.”

An aide to Ali Haidar, the minister of national reconciliation, said the truces were part of an overall reconciliation process and an attempt to steer Syrians away from violence and toward a political process.

The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied they were meant to force the opposition into submission.

“The ultimate goal is to help people turn to the political domain,” he said. “Most Syrians are now convinced that violence will not take us anywhere.”

Truces have been reached, with varying degrees of success, in a number of neighborhoods and suburbs around Damascus.

Nearly 250,000 Syrians have been cut off from food and other aid - by government as well as rebel forces - as a “weapon of war,” Valerie Amos, the United Nations humanitarian chief, said Wednesday at an aid conference in Kuwait.

In Damascus’ Yarmouk camp, home to displaced Syrians and Palestinian refugees, a truce fell apart at the last minute when a U.N. aid convoy came under attack Jan. 13 and was forced to turn back. The government aide blamed the attack on “radical jihadi groups” trying to undermine the truce. The opposition blamed Lebanese and Iraqi Shiite militant groups loyal to Assad.

More than 50 people have reportedly died of starvation in Yarmouk, said Rami Al-Sayid, an activist in the camp. U.N. Relief and Works Agency spokesman Christopher Gunness said the number could not be confirmed but that “reports of widespread malnutrition give credibility to reports of starvation deaths.”

Food finally reached the camp Saturday as a result of a cease-fire agreement, Palestinian officials said. A few dozen people, including some in need of medical treatment, left the besieged rebel-held Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk on Sunday, said a member of Palestinian Struggle Front who goes by the name Abu Jamal.

In the Dariya suburb of the capital, where negotiations for a truce ended soon after they began, residents say they have been under heavy bombardment from barrel bombs since the beginning of the year. This month, activists also claimed that three residents had died from a poison gas attack. There has been no independent verification of the allegation.

If the truces do last, they could become “a road map” for Assad to negotiate with the opposition and in effect accept its surrender, said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

“They’re pacifying these neighborhoods. … They have created a wasteland and they’re calling it peace,” Landis said. “These truces being brokered, in a way, are Assad telling the world,‘I’m here, I’m reconquering this territory and you’ve got to come to terms with me because you have no other choice.’”

On Friday, the Syrian foreign minister proposed a cease-fire and prisoner exchange in the northern city of Aleppo, which is divided between rebel and government forces. Opposition leaders, though, quickly rejected any notion of a deal with Assad.

On Dec. 25, the government flag was raised over Muadhamiya, which had been under siege for more than a year, resulting in the starvation of several residents, including children. Two days later, the government sent in several vehicles carrying food that residents said was enough for only one meal per person, far less than what was agreed upon.

Since then, more food has trickled in and some sick and injured residents have been allowed to receive medical care in exchange for a number of new concessions from the residents, including handing over an armored vehicle and dozens of light weapons.

Now the government is demanding the town turn in all military defectors in order to “settle their portfolios.” Residents and activists who have opposed this say they have been threatened by town leaders who want to put an end tothe dire living conditions.

“The big picture is to neutralize the Free Syrian Army and exchange it with some kind of popular committee,” said Qusai Zakarya, an activist in the suburb of Muadhamiya.

In a new 16-minute audio message posted online Sunday calling for rebels to stop clashing and instead focus on the government and its allies, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi accused the other rebel brigades of stabbing his group in the back and said the infighting only benefits the government.

“You know that we did not want this war, we did not go for it and we did not plan for it. It is clear that the beneficiaries of this war are the Nusayris and the Shiites,” he said, using a derogatory term for Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

But he also called for reconciliation, saying the Islamic State “is extending its hand so that we refrain from attacking each other and so that we can join forces” against Assad and his allies.

The message’s authenticity could not be independently confirmed, but the audio was posted on a website commonly used by Islamic militants.

In Istanbul, meanwhile, the leadership of Syria’s main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, was meeting to decide on its delegation for peace talks set to open Wednesday in Switzerland.

Senior Coalition member Ahmad Ramadan said the meeting will decide who will negotiate with the Syrian government delegation at the peace conference.

Ramadan said the 15-member delegation will include two representatives of the country’s ethnic Kurdish minority, two for the rebels and two for opposition groups based in Syria.

Mustafa Osso, a member of the National Kurdish Council, said they might have two people selected to represent them.

The United Nations said Sunday that Iran has been invited to attend the peace conference.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has pledged that his country “would play a positive and constructive role” in the meeting.

Ban said Iran is among 10 additional countries invited to attend the meeting that precedes the talks scheduled to begin Friday. Thirty other countries had already accepted invitations.

Information for this article was contributed by Bassem Mroue, Ryan Lucas, Sameer N. Yacoub, Albert Aji and staff members of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/20/2014

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