U.N. Considers ‘Light Touch’ Cease-Fire Monitoring
The United Nations is looking into “light touch” methods of monitoring a potential cease-fire in Syria that would primarily rely on Syrians already on the ground, diplomatic sources told Reuters.
Global diplomats on Friday called on U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to create plans in the next month for a cease-fire in the war-torn country, marking the second time in Syria’s nearly five-year-long civil war that the council has backed a plan for negotiations and a truce.
The “light touch” method would have the United Nations rely on Syrian “proxies” on the ground to report any violations.
“There’s the idea of proxy-ism, where they were going to look at who would be credible on the ground to get information and to create a reporting mechanism from them to the U.N.,” said an anonymous diplomatic source.
For the proxy system to work, major powers would have to agree on who is considered a reliable Syrian actor on the ground.
“Who is it who’s responsible for the credibility of the information?” one anonymous diplomat asked. “The Syrians on the ground or the U.N., which receives the information?”
ISIS Lost Nearly 15 Percent of Territory in 2015
The group known as the Islamic State (ISIS) lost about 14 percent of its territory in 2015, according to a report released Monday by a think-tank.
The jihadist group, whose aim is to expand the territory of its so-called “caliphate,” suffered serious setbacks in both Syria and Iraq, AFP reports.
It lost the strategic town of Tal Abyad along the Syrian border with Turkey to Syrian Kurdish militias, who this year, according to the same report, have almost tripled the amount of land under their control.
Other significant ISIS losses this year include the Iraqi city of Tikrit, Iraq’s Baiji oil refinery and a key stretch of highway between Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq.
“We had already seen a negative financial impact on the Islamic State due to the loss of control of the Tal Abyad border crossing prior to the recent intensification of airstrikes against the group’s oil production capacity,” said Columb Strack, a senior Middle East analyst with IHS Jane, the U.S.-based think-tank that produced the report.
Strategic gains by ISIS, including the Syrian city of Palmyra and the center of Iraq’s Ramadi, came at the expense of the group’s territorial holdings in northern Syria, according to IHS Jane.
“This indicates that the Islamic State was overstretched, and also that holding Kurdish territory is considered to be of lesser importance than expelling the Syrian and Iraqi governments from traditionally Sunni lands,” said Strack.
ISIS Shelling Kills Nine Schoolgirls
ISIS shelling killed nine young Syrian students in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor on Tuesday, according to the Syrian state news agency.
The incident was confirmed by the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdulrahman, who said another 20 people were wounded in the shelling.
“The toll is likely to worsen as some of the injured are in a serious condition,” Abdulrahman told AFP.
While ISIS has controlled almost all of the oil-rich Deir Ezzor province since 2013, Bashar al-Assad’s government remains in control of half of the region’s capital city.
Recommended Reads
- Foreign Policy: Meet the Man Showing the World What Airstrikes Are Doing to Syria
- The Washington Post: A U.N. Resolution on Syria Is Shattered – and Russia Is to Blame
- The Washington Post: No, Mr. President, Staying out of Syria Didn’t Save Lives. It Cost Them
- McClatchy: What Really Happened to the U.S. Train-and-Equip Program in Syria?
- Human Rights Watch: How to Make Syria Peace Talks Work
Top image: U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, right, shows a copy of a Security Council resolution concerning Syria, during a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, Friday, Dec. 18, 2015 at U.N. headquarters. The resolution was approved on vote during a meeting in the U.N. Security Council of foreign ministers. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)