Opposition Mulls Humanitarian Proposal Put Forward by De Mistura

A proposal presented to the opposition by United Nations special envoy Staffan de Mistura may convince the delegation to press ahead with the talks after holding their first meeting in Geneva on Sunday, Reuters reports.

Although the opposition’s negotiating body, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), had initially demanded that no talks could take place before an end to government airstrikes and sieges on Syrian towns, it seems that progress was made during a meeting with de Mistura on Sunday evening.

The HNC met for several hours late Sunday to discuss de Mistura’s proposal. HNC spokesperson Salim al-Muslat said the discussion was positive and encouraging “concerning humanitarian values.”

Muslat hinted that even if there was only a small degree of concrete success in getting the Syrian government to move forward on humanitarian measures outlined in a December 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution, the HNC could be willing to discuss the larger issues of ending the war.

“We hope that he will do something to make things easier to start negotiations,” the HNC spokesperson said on Sunday after meeting with de Mistura. “We hope we see something tomorrow.”

Both delegations are set to meet with de Mistura on Monday, the government in the morning and the opposition in the afternoon.

“De Mistura made them a proposition, and that’s tempting them to enter the negotiations. They are very prudent,” an anonymous Western diplomat told Reuters late on Sunday night.

The HNC is demanding a halt to attacks on civilian areas, a lifting of government-imposed blockades and a prisoner release before it will enter into negotiations with the Assad government.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that opposition delegates were drawing up a list of 3,800 prisoners – mostly women and children – in Syrian government jails, for discussions regarding a possible exchange.

“They want tangible and visible things immediately. Things they can give to their grassroots,” the diplomatic source said. “Certain things aren’t possible immediately like the end of bombings, but the easiest is the release of civilians, women and children.”

ISIS Kills 71 Near Shiite Shrine in Damascus

At least 71 people were killed on Sunday after two blasts rocked a revered Shiite shrine outside of Damascus.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights said 71 people, including 5 children, were killed after two suicide bombers from the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) targeted the Sayyida Zeinab shrine.

“Two soldiers of the caliphate carried out martyrdom operations in a den of the infidels in the Sayyida Zeinab area, killing nearly 50 and injuring around 120,” ISIS said in a statement circulated on social media, Agence France-Presse reports.

The first explosion came from a suicide car bomb. A second bomber waited for a crowd to form around the site before detonating his suicide vest.

Syrian state media reported there had been three blasts and that 50 people were killed and more than 100 injured. State news agency SANA reported that a car bomb had detonated at a bus stop near the shrine before two suicide bombers set off their explosive belts among the crowd.

Both Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have sworn to defend Sayyida Zeinab shrine, which lies south of Damascus and contains the grave of the granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammad. The site is revered as a pilgrimage site by Shiite Muslims across the globe.

High-Level U.S. Diplomat Visits SDF in Kobani

A delegation including senior U.S. diplomat Brett McGurk travelled to Kobani over the weekend to meet with members of the Syrian Kurd-Arab alliance battling ISIS inside Syria, Agence France-Presse reports.

President Obama’s envoy to the international coalition fighting ISIS, Brett McGurk, arrived in the area on Saturday accompanied by French and British officials, where they met with senior members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) military coalition.

The group discussed “military plans” for the fight against ISIS, a Kurdish source told Agence France-Presse.

“These meetings will have an impact on many developments that will be seen in the area,” the source said.

An anonymous U.S. official said McGurk met with members of the SDF in Syria over the weekend to size up the ongoing campaign against ISIS.

“The visit and the discussions he had are in keeping with the special envoy’s efforts to continue looking for ways to increase coalition pressure on ISIL,” the source said, using an alternative acronym for the extremist group.

The SDF is a military alliance composed primarily of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), but also includes a mix of Syrian Arab and Christian fighters.

The YPG has proved to be the U.S. coalition’s most effective ground partner in its fight against ISIS in Syria, but is deeply distrusted by neighboring Turkey.

The meeting over the weekend comes after the YPG’s political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), was excluded from U.N.-brokered peace talks in Geneva due to pressure from Turkey and from elements of the Syrian opposition.

Turkey views the YPG and PYD as affiliates of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has waged an armed struggle against the state since the mid-1980s. Members of the Syrian opposition have accused Syrian Kurdish groups of colluding with the government in Damascus.

The goal of McGurk’s visit, said a U.S.-based Kurdish affairs analyst, was “to ease Kurdish anger and give them reassurances that they are not being ignored and that they have a part in this process.”

Recommended Reads

• The Washington Post: U.S. Envoy Goes to Syria to Press the Fight Against the Islamic State
• Financial Times: Putin Wants to Bomb in Syria and Talk in Geneva
• BBC: Madaya: ‘Another 16 Starve to Death’ in Besieged Syrian Town
• Human Rights Watch: Letter and Memorandum to Donors Attending the ‘Supporting Syria and the Region’ Conference
• Al-Monitor: Should Armed Groups Allied with al-Qaida be Included in Syria Peace Talks?