Syria agrees to April 10 troop pullout from cities

April 3, 2012

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United Nations, April 3: Syria told international envoy Kofi Annan that its military will withdraw troops and heavy weapons from populated areas by April 10, in what could be a first step toward ending the bloody yearlong conflict, UN diplomats said Monday.


The announcement came as Syrian troops hunted down activists and destroyed their homes in the country’s rebellious areas, and the United States remained skeptical of Damascus’ latest statements, pointing to previous broken promises. Britain, France, Germany and a number of other countries also questioned whether Syrian President Bashar Assad would keep his word, the diplomats said.


“We have seen commitments to end the violence followed by massive intensifications of violence,” US Ambassador Susan Rice said. “So the United States, for one, would look at these commitments and say, yet again, the proof is the actions, not in the words.”


Rice said Annan told the UN Security Council he received a letter from Syria’s foreign minister on Sunday with the April 10 date and indicated he would have preferred the pullback to begin earlier. Annan urged the Syrian government to start the withdrawal immediately and move no further into populated areas, and “that commitment was provided,” Rice added.


“Past experience would lead us to be skeptical and to worry that over the next several days rather than a diminution of the violence, we might, yet again, see an escalation of the violence,” said Rice, the current council president. “We certainly hope that is not so. We hope the Syrian authorities will implement the commitments they made without condition or codicils.”


Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said the April 10 deadline was set “by common accord” between Annan and the Syrian government, and he again pledged his government’s complete support for Annan’s six-point plan to end the yearlong Syrian crisis.


Annan told the council if Syria meets the April 10 deadline, and this can be verified, then the opposition would have 48 hours to wind down its military activities so there would be a complete cessation of hostilities, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because his briefing was closed.


Annan’s plan to end Syria’s crisis calls for an immediate withdrawal of troops and heavy military equipment from populated areas, followed by an overall cease-fire — first by government forces and then by opposition fighters — to pave the way for talks by all Syrian parties on a political solution. It includes an immediate daily two-hour halt to fighting so humanitarian aid can reach suffering civilians, and unhindered access for humanitarian groups and the media.


Rice stressed that the Syrian agreement was just on the pullout of troops and equipment from cities and towns. She said Annan, who briefed a closed council meeting by videoconference from Geneva, is expecting details from the Syrian government “very shortly” on the other aspects of the plan.


Annan is sending a UN peacekeeping team and some staff to Damascus this week to continue preparations for a potential UN cease-fire monitoring mission. The joint UN-Arab League envoy also was considering borrowing troops from UN operations in the Mideast, Rice said.


Rice said Annan asked the Security Council to support the April 10 deadline and start urgently considering a potential UN monitoring mission, which would need council authorization. Rice said the Council expressed its full support.


One of the key issues is trying to unite the many different opposition factions under a single umbrella.


Rice said Annan’s deputy, Nasser Al-Kidwa, has had “constructive exchanges with the opposition to urge them to cease their operations within 48 hours of a complete cessation of government hostilities.” Al-Kidwa attended a meeting of Syrian opposition groups in Istanbul last week.


Assad accepted Annan’s plan a week ago, but late Friday the Syrian government rejected Annan’s call for the regime to halt violence first.


Annan had appealed for the Syrian authorities to stop military operations first as “the stronger party” in a “gesture of good faith” to the lightly armed opposition.


But Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdessi said Friday the government will not pull tanks and troops from towns and cities engulfed by unrest before life returns to normal there.


That position may have changed, but Syria’s Ja’afari said his government expects Annan to get similar commitments from the opposition.


“So far, the Syrian government says that it is committed and we are expecting Mr. Kofi Annan ... to get in touch with the other parties — those who are involved with initiating, sponsoring and arming the armed groups also — in order to make the stopping of the violence relevant to all parties,” he said.


Key opposition figures joined representatives from more than 70 countries, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at Sunday’s “Friends of the Syrian People” conference in Istanbul. The “Friends” pledged to send millions of dollars and communications equipment to Syria’s opposition groups, pushed for tighter sanctions and diplomatic pressure to further isolate Assad, and urged the opposition to offer a democratic alternative to his regime.


Syria’s Ja’afari lashed out at the meeting and its supporters.


“The so-called Conference of the Enemy of Syria in Istanbul is itself a violation and contradiction of Mr. Kofi Annan’s mission,” he said. “This is a parallel track set up by the enemies of Syria to compete with Mr. Kofi Annan’s mission, not only maybe to compete, maybe to undermine his mission as a whole.”


Ja’afari said those who want to send money to armed opposition groups or pay their salaries are committing “a violation and declaration of war against the sovereignty of Syria.”


Earlier Monday, Russia raised pressure on an old ally, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying Syria’s government must take the first step toward settling the country’s conflict by pulling troops from city streets.


Lavrov’s statement at a briefing in Yerevan following talks with his Armenian counterpart appeared to reflect Moscow’s increasing impatience with Assad.


Russia, along with China, has twice shielded President Assad from United Nations sanctions over his crackdown on an uprising in which more than 9,000 people have been killed, according to the United Nations. But Moscow also has strongly supported Annan’s six-point plan.


Lavrov also warned the West against giving ultimatums to Damascus, saying that the priority now should be to separate the warring parties and open the way for the delivery of humanitarian aid.


“Ultimatums and artificial deadlines rarely help,” he said. “We all want a quick end to bloodshed, but that demand should be addressed to all warring parties in Syria.”


In Geneva Monday, the president of the Red Cross said he had returned to Syria for a two-day visit aimed at convincing the country’s leaders to give more access to aid workers.


Jakob Kellenberger said in a statement that he also will raise “the issue of access to all places of detention” and how to stop the fighting for two hours a day. He said a daily pause is essential to evacuate the wounded and deliver aid.


Lavrov said Russia didn’t attend Sunday’s meeting of the “Friends of the Syrian People” because its organizers had failed to invite Syrian government representatives.


“I think such an approach is dangerous and contradicts Kofi Annan’s efforts,” he said. “We are trying to be friends of all the Syrians, and not just some part of the Syrian people.”


He said that Moscow will soon host two separate opposition delegations for talks.


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News Network
March 25,2024

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The Israeli military has attacked desperate Palestinians lining up for humanitarian aid in Gaza City, killing at least 19 people and injuring 23 others in a new massacre against aid seekers. 

The Government Media Office in Gaza said in a statement that the carnage took place on Saturday near the al-Kuwait roundabout, southeast of Gaza City.

“The occupation army and tanks opened fire with machine guns at the hungry people who were waiting for bags of flour and aid in a remote place that did not pose a threat to the occupation,” the statement said.

Mahmud Basal, spokesman for the Civil Defense Department in Gaza, said there had been “heavy shooting at civilians” looking for food to help their families and children.

“There were very serious injuries, some of whom were injured by shrapnel. The reality is tragic, difficult, and challenging,” he added, saying the victims were taken to the nearby al-Ahli Arab hospital.

Speaking to Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV network, Alaa al-Khudary, a witness at the scene, said that Israeli forces shot at the crowd, leaving “many dead” and injuring others while they tried to get “a bite to eat” for their children.

However, the Israeli army claimed that the reports of its troops firing on a Gaza aid queue are “incorrect.”

In recent weeks, Israeli soldiers have conducted several deadly attacks on crowds of aid seekers in the besieged Gaza.

In mid-March the Israeli military opened fire on Palestinian civilians who had gathered in Gaza to obtain humanitarian aid, targeting them with gunfire from helicopters, tanks, and drones near the Kuwait roundabout on the outskirts of Gaza City, killing over 60 people and injuring 160 others.

In what is known as the “flour massacre”, the occupation forces killed 118 people and wounded 760 others as they opened fire on hundreds of Palestinians waiting for aid trucks in Gaza City’s al-Rashid Street on February 29.

Earlier this month, the Government Media Office in Gaza said that a total of 400 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on aid seekers since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal aggression against the Palestinian territory.

Israel waged its US-backed war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 32,142 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 74,412 others.

Israel is intentionally starving the people in Gaza by blocking their access to food, a war crime under the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute.

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News Network
March 29,2024

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Dozens of people have lost their lives and sustained injuries when Israeli military aircraft carried out a string of aerial assaults on targets near the northwestern Syrian city of Aleppo, according to Syrian officials.

Citing an unnamed military source, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that “the Israeli enemy launched an aerial attack at approximately 1:45 a.m. local time on Friday (March 29) from the direction of Athriya, southeast of Aleppo.”

It added that “civilians and military personnel” had been killed and wounded in the strikes.

SANA noted that Israeli drone strikes had targeted civilians in Aleppo and its suburbs. It did not give an exact number for the casualties.

Two security sources said the strikes on Aleppo early on Friday killed 33 civilians and military personnel.

There was no immediate statement from Israeli officials on the strikes.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once its commercial center, has come under such attacks in the past that led to the closure of its international airport. Friday's strike did not affect the airport.

On Thursday evening, Syrian media outlets reported Israeli airstrikes near the capital Damascus saying it wounded two civilians.

The Israeli regime often conducts airstrikes on military installations in Syria, particularly those belonging to the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has been instrumental in supporting the Syrian army in its battle against terrorists backed by foreign entities.

The Tel Aviv regime does not acknowledge its military actions within Syrian territories, which is widely interpreted as a knee-jerk reaction to the Syrian government’s triumph over terrorism.

Since the onset of foreign-backed militancy in Syria in 2011, the Israeli regime has stood as a staunch supporter of terrorist factions that are in opposition to the democratically-elected leadership of President Bashar al-Assad.

The recent strikes also come amid an upsurge in Israel’s acts of aggression against Syria and its ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip which has killed at least 32,552 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

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News Network
March 21,2024

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Israeli military siege, hunger, and diseases will soon become the main killer in Gaza, says commissioner- general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UNRWA for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, took to X on Wednesday to vent his concern for the growing hunger and spread of diseases as a result of the Israeli siege on the besieged strip.

He said starvation and illness may soon be the main killer in Gaza.

"This fabricated and catastrophic level of hunger can still be reversed by flooding Gaza with food and life-saving assistance," Lazzarini said.

"More than ever humanity requires political will,” the UNRWA chief added.

In a press release on March 19, UNRWA said that “famine is imminent in the Gaza Strip, especially for isolated populations in northern Gaza deprived of humanitarian aid.”

The statement noted that the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), in a latest food security outlook, concluded that up to 1.1 million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

“Nutrition screenings conducted in February by UNICEF and UNRWA show that rates of acute malnutrition among children in northern Gaza and Rafah have nearly doubled since January,” it said.

The Israeli regime has accused UNRWA staff of being involved in the October 7 attack by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas against the occupied territories, prompting a number of its western allies to suspend funding for the UN agency.

On Wednesday, an agreement was reached by US congressional leaders and the White House on a massive funding bill will continue a ban on US funding for UNRWA until March 2025, Reuters reported.

Earlier this year the US, Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Estonia, Japan, Austria and Romania  decided to cut their funding to the UNRWA, considered a lifeline for the Palestinians in Gaza.

France had also announced that it does not plan a new payment to fund UNRWA in the first quarter of 2024.

Condemning the suspension of funding, Lazzarini had said, “It would be immensely irresponsible to sanction an agency and an entire community…, especially at a time of war, displacement and political crises in the region.”

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