U.N. Gets Approval for Aid Delivery in Seven Besieged Towns

The government in Damascus approved access to seven besieged areas on Tuesday and U.N. aid convoys are expected to head out this week, Reuters reports.

U.N. Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura gained a green light for the aid delivery after travelling to Damascus on Tuesday to hold an emergency meeting with Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem.

The U.N. envoy said the two had discussed the issue of humanitarian access to areas besieged by all sides in the crisis. He said the U.N. would test the Syrian government’s commitment to allow access on Wednesday but gave no further details.

“It is clear it is the duty of the government of Syria to want to reach every Syrian person wherever they are and allow the U.N. to bring humanitarian aid,” de Mistura said in a statement. “Tomorrow we test this.”

The Syrian government struck back at de Mistura, arguing it was his own credibility that needed testing.

“The truth is Syria needs to test the credibility of de Mistura who has been contradicting what happened during the meeting with the Syrian government,” the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement. “Delivering aid to areas besieged by terrorists has been the government’s commitment towards its people for years.”

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the government had given approval for access to Deir Ezzor; Fou’a and Kafraya in Idlib; and Madaya, Zabadani, Kafr Batna and Mouadamiya in rural Damascus.

“Humanitarian agencies and partners are preparing convoys for these areas, to depart as soon as possible in the coming days,” OCHA said, but it was not clear if the convoys would set out on Wednesday.

De Mistura has been trying to secure the delivery of aid to besieged areas to improve the chances of restarting stalled peace talks before the end of the month. His attempt has been made more difficult by heavy fighting north of Aleppo, where pro-government forces, rebel militias and Kurdish YPG forces are all vying for a crucial strip of land connecting Syria’s northernmost city to the Turkish border.

Turkey Calls for Ground Operation as Kurds Advance

Turkey is calling on its coalition partners, including the United States, to take part in joint ground operation in Syria, saying it is the only way to end the five-year civil war.

An anonymous Turkish official said Tuesday that without a massive ground operation, “it is impossible to stop the fighting in Syria,” the Associated Press reports.

The official ruled out the possibility of any unilateral action by Turkey or the prospect of a joint Turkey-Saudi operation without consent from the U.S.-backed coalition against ISIS.

Pro-government troops, backed by heavy Russian air power, are closing in on the rebel stronghold of Azaz, the last strip of land linking Aleppo with the Turkish border, with the hopes of fully encircling rebel-held areas of Syria’s largest city. Syrian state media said the government seized two more villages on Tuesday.

At the same time, U.S.-backed Kurdish militias, the coalition’s most effective ground partner in the war against ISIS, are advancing in the same area, fighting other rebel and insurgent groups opposed to Assad’s rule in an attempt to expand their steadily growing autonomous enclave.

Recent advances by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – and its larger Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition, which includes Arab fighters – have alarmed Ankara, which views Syrian Kurds with suspicion because of their connection to the outlawed Kurdish separatist group in Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The Turkish military shelled Kurdish forces in Syria for three straight days earlier this week, but the YPG and its SDF coalition have continued to make gains on the ground, capturing the village of Sheikh Issa on Tuesday, cutting rebel supply lines to the village of Marea.

The SDF has also recently taken control of Tal Rifaat, previously one of the strongest rebel strongholds in all of Aleppo province, in addition to the village of Kfar Naseh to the south.

According to SDF official Ahmad al-Omar, mediation is currently under way to arrange a deal through which rebel fighters in Marea will be allowed to depart to the border town of Azaz through an agreed corridor. The agreement would allow the SDF to take over the town without a fight, and would save it from devastating Russian airstrikes. Once in Marea, the SDF is set to begin a new front against ISIS.

Turkey Renews Call for Safe Zone on Border

Turkish officials have revived a proposal to create a safe zone inside Syria, saying it could be extended some 6 miles (10km) into the country in order to prevent hundreds of thousands of displaced people fleeing heavy Russian bombing from entering Turkey as refugees, the Guardian reports.

Turkey has said its plan has the support of German chancellor Angela Merkel but it would need U.S. backing. The U.S. has refused to support the creation of a safe zone because it would require a no-fly zone, which could potentially lead to direct conflict with Russian warplanes above Syria.

Turkish deputy prime minister Numan Kurtulmus has said as many as 600,000 refugees could flood into the country if Russian airstrikes continue.

Ankara is also concerned about losing direct connection to rebel forces fighting against Assad in northern Syria, as the last land link between Turkey and the opposition forces could be broken if the area between Azaz and Tal Rifaat falls to either pro-government forces or the Kurdish militias.

Chancellor Merkel on Monday gave new impetus to Turkey’s safe zone plan, saying after talks with Turkish officials that the creation of a no-fly zone would be “helpful,” particularly given Europe’s demand that Ankara stem the flow of refugees passing through Turkey.

“I can totally understand Turkish politicians reproaching us Europeans for not being able to explain not taking refugees in Europe while at the same time urging them to keep their Turkish borders open for further needy Syrian refugees,” she said.

U.S. President Barack Obama most recently rejected the creation of a safe zone at the G20 summit in November.

“A true safe zone requires us to set up ground operations,” he said. “Who would come in, who would come out of that safe zone? How would it work? Would it become a magnet for further terrorist attacks? How many personnel would be required and how would it end?”

Recommended Reads

• Vice News: The Battle for Aleppo Shows That U.S. Strategy in Syria Is in Tatters
• CNN:Syria: How One Strip of Land Could Change Everything
• The Guardian: Refugees Are Becoming Russia’s Weapon of Choice in Syria
• The Washington Post: The Current Chaos in Syria May Help the Islamic State
• Associated Press: I.S. Faces Budget Crunch, Cutting Perks and Trimming Salaries
• Vox: How Russian Bombing Is Changing Syria’s War, in Three Maps
• Bloomberg: A Direct Turkey-Russia Clash Is Growing Risk on Syria Border

Top image: Turkish artillery fire from the town of Kilis into northern Syria on Feb. 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Halit Onur Sandal)