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TURKEY AND RUSSIA have agreed a ceasefire plan for all of Syria that should come into force this evening at midnight, Turkish state media said this morning.
The plan aims to expand a ceasefire in the city of Aleppo, brokered by Turkey and Russia earlier this month, to all of the country.
Like previous ceasefire plans that had been brokered by the United States and Russia, it excludes “terror” groups, the agency said.
A Syrian rebel source, who asked not to be named, told AFP in Beirut that details still had to be submitted to the rebel groups and said there was no agreement as yet.
There was no immediate official confirmation of the plan from Moscow or Ankara.
If successful, the plan will form the basis of upcoming political negotiations between the Damascus regime and opposition overseen by Russia and Turkey in the Kazakh capital Astana, it added.
Turkey and Russia will work for the plan to come into force at midnight, the agency said, without giving further details.
It was not immediately clear how and where the plan had been agreed but there have been talks in the last weeks between Turkey, Russia and Syrian opposition representatives in Ankara.
Qatar-based channel Al-Jazeera said a new meeting is planned on Thursday in Ankara, this time between military representatives of Syrian rebels and Russia.
Meetings
Ankara and Moscow have been on opposing sides in the Syrian civil war, with Turkey seeking the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad and Russia, along with Iran, his key international ally.
But the two countries have started in the last months to cooperate more tightly on Syria, especially after a deal in summer to normalise ties battered by Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian warplane last year.
Ankara remained conspicuously quiet as Assad’s forces, backed by Russia, took control last week of all of Aleppo in the biggest defeat for the rebels in the civil war so far.
No date has yet been set for the Astana talks and Russian foreign ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said the meeting was still at the planning stage.
She emphasised that the talks were not intended to replace the peace process based in Geneva which has sought to find a solution for the Syrian conflict.
But the direct bilateral involvement of Turkey and Russia comes as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is increasingly expressing impatience at the role of the United States in Syria.
Previous ceasefire plans had been brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. They met with only temporary success and failed to lead to a solution for the conflict.
It remains unclear how the latest ceasefire plan will apply to the Fateh al-Sham, formerly the Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, which has worked more closely with the rebels since changing its name.
‘No going back’
Erdogan had on Tuesday launched one of his most bitter attacks yet on US and Western policy in Syria, which he said was marked by broken promises.
He accused the West of not just supporting Kurdish militia that Ankara regards as a “terror group” but even Islamic State (IS) jihadists.
Turkey has been enraged by the US policy of using the Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) as a trusted ally on the ground against IS. To Ankara’s pleasure, Russia has steered clear of overt cooperation with the YPG.
The Turkish strongman accused the West of failing to back Turkey’s own incursion inside Syria in support of pro-Ankara fighters to oust IS from the border area, which has taken increasing casualties in recent weeks.
But he vowed: “There is no going back on the path we have set out on.”
Backing the talks in Astana, Erdogan was dismissive of the Geneva process. “Unfortunately, Geneva came up empty. How many meetings were held? And no results were obtained,” he said.
In continued bloodshed, air strikes carried out by unidentified aircraft killed at least 22 civilians, including 10 children, in a village held by IS in Deir Ezzor province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011 as an uprising against Assad, has now lasted nearly six years and killed more than 310,000 people.
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Expect the US, Israel. Arabia etc. to organise the killing of another Russian official to try and derail this ceasefire. They have armed funded and trained the mercenary rebels at every turn to try and achieve regime change and topple Assad. They are their proxy army, They don’t want peace, its not profitable and hurts the neocons plan for the region.
Meanwhile the US has decided to supply arms to the rebels again …
@Anne Marie Devlin:
Yes, the Kurdish rebels who are attacking ISIS in Raqqa and trying to drive them out of their so-called capital city. Funny that you left that part out.
@Jason Culligan: it would be insulting to idiots to insist you are in fact an idiot if you firmly believe when the US decided to re-arm the rebels they were talking about Kurdish rebels, give it up, history and hindsight has proven the US will arm anybody to further it’s own agenda, END OF STORY!!
@Anne Marie Devlin: The main directive that the US have in the Middle East is to keep it destabilised for Israel. It hasn’t changed in half a century and it makes no difference what sides they pick and choose as long as it fits this agenda.
Turkey have no business having troops and hardware in Syria or Iraq, it’s just another excuse for a land grab as was Northern Cyprus…http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-turkey-idUSKCN1250H9?il=0
–
As for the proxy, head hacking “moderate rebels’…http://www.syrianews.cc/weapons-found-eastern-aleppo-left-behind-moderate-rebels/
But Russia do?
@nialls: Yes, they were invited by the Syrian government.
@Nazerene:
You mean the Syrian government who’s refusal to step down and brutal handling of political protests led to this war in the first place?
If you support Russia’s presence in Syria then you have to support Saudi Arabia’s presence in Yemen as both situations are essentially identical.
No I don’t support the Saudi presence in Yemen, but the US does, the same US that give military training and equipment to the so called moderate rebels. And there was me thinking it was all down to an oil pipeline. Make up your mind Jason, what would you have, a Syria(or what’s left of it) run by various Sharia loving Jihadist US backed terrorist groups or Assads government? … and we all know the Arab spring was so too.
*BS
Nazarene is it true that Elvis shot JFK?
@nialls: No, but I heard he’s alive and well and lives on the moon..Elvis that is.
Is that all you’ve got nialls.
@Nazerene: You say that Turkey has no business in Syria even though they are a Muslim neighbour country affected by the war. Turkey has taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing from Syrian government attrocities. It is a pity in my view that Turkey hasn’t become involved sooner and I do think that Turkey and Russia are the best situated to broker a ceasefire that will have any chance of lasting. America needs to back off now and let them find a lasting solution.
He is of course a hypocrite as he was also supporting them himself.
Erdogan says Turkey has “confirmed evidence, with pictures, photos and videos” U.S. is “supporting Islamic State”
““They were accusing us of supporting Daesh (Islamic State).”
“Now they give support to terrorist groups including Daesh, YPG, PYD. It’s very clear. We have confirmed evidence, with pictures, photos and videos.”
http://theduran.com/erdogan-says-turkey-has-confirmed-evidence-with-pictures-photos-and-videos-that-u-s-is-supporting-daesh-islamic-state/
@Pat O’Dwyer:
“Now they give support to terrorist groups including Daesh, YPG, PYD. It’s very clear. We have confirmed evidence, with pictures, photos and videos.”
Funny that no such videos or images have been forthcoming.
It’s also funny that he laps ISIS in with the YPG. It’s pretty obvious to anyone watching the conflict that the US and NATO allies have been supplying Kurdish forces in both Syria and Iraq with equipment. They’ve never denied doing so either.
What’s worrying is that the relatively honourable Kurdish fighters are being lapped into the same boat as ISIS by Turkey.
It’s going to be a eventful fake news day
Bad news for the mainstream media but it can always blame it’s propaganda lies on the bloke in Coventry, eh?
@Mercurial One: It seems the western MSM propaganda/BS is slowly but surely being found outfor what it is…It seems they even have ‘Moderate rebel child beheaders’ on their payrol..an interesting video that gets very interesting at 2mins 10 Sec….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jifS0fi9WB8
Interesting realignment of partnerships in The ME with Turkey and Russia finding common cause. Turkey has always been self serving but now starts to see it’s interests away from US foreign policy and towards a more nuanced and neighboring proximity Russia. Erdogon and Putin are the type of strongman no nonsense types that could respect and do business together.
Ceasefire? It’s more of a break to plan what they will do with the carcass of Syria. Nobody on the world stage is going to attempt to stop them so I guess they can agree a plan to discreetly wipe out any group who disagrees with them while their puppet Assad helps them to strip the country of any resources they have left. One thing is for sure….the future of the Syrian people won’t be high on the agenda
@nialls: Since you’ve brought up resources…http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-water-idUKKBN14C20K
Interesting that the Turkish government is throwing the Kurdish rebels into the same boat as ISIS and al-Nusra to justify their continued campaign against them while this ceasefire is in effect. Meanwhile Turkey backs Turkmen rebels who, as many pro-Russians on here will be aware, were responsible for the execution of a downed Russian pilot after Turkey shot down that Russian Su-24 in 2015 among other things.
I wonder what deals are being cut here. Is Russia promising Turkey a buffer in the north in exchange for taking on the YPG that Syrian forces don’t have the strength to deal with?
@Jason Culligan: Russia is in no position to offer Turkey anything. Turkey is a very strong country and has proven with its dealings with terrorists and the EU over refugees that it holds a handful of aces. Turkey can now pick over the carcas of Syria at its leasure, while the Russians plan their exit strategy.
So Shally, Dr Anabi has returned to to a highly dysfunctional marriage which is your only source of self esteem and identity. And this is a good thing……. Why, exactly?????
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