GENEVA // Talks aimed at securing peace in Syria were suspended on Wednesday as president Bashar Al Assad’s regime secured a major battlefield victory against rebels and his ally Russia vowed no-let up in air strikes.
“I have indicated from the first day I won’t talk for the sake of talking,” UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura said in Geneva after failing for several days to get peace negotiations off the ground.
“I therefore have taken the decision to bring a temporary pause [until February 25]. It is not the end or the failure of the talks.”
The announcement came as Syrian troops, helped by days of Russian air strikes, cut the last supply route linking rebels in Aleppo to the Turkish border, in a major blow to the opposition.
Aleppo, Syria’s pre-war commercial capital, has been divided between loyalists in the west and rebels in the east since fighting erupted in the northern city in mid-2012.
Mr Al Assad’s forces backed by Hizbollah and other militias encircled Aleppo from the west, south and east, and have advanced from the north since last week.
Opposition forces are now threatened in parts of Aleppo that they have held for three years.
On Wednesday, the army broke a three-year rebel siege of two government-held villages and took control of parts of the supply route, a Syrian military source said.
“The regime forces have done in three days in Aleppo what they had failed to do in three years, thanks mainly to Russian support,” said Rami Abdul Rahman, director of of Britain-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The offensive is one of several the government has launched since president Vladimir Putin threw Russia’s military might behind Mr Al Assad on September 30, adding to support from Iran.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that he saw no reason for the air strikes to stop.
“Russian air strikes will not cease until we truly defeat the terrorist organisations ISIL and Jabhat Al Nusra,” Russian agencies quoted him as saying in Oman.
The regime’s new success on the ground helped undermine Mr de Mistura’s efforts in recent days to coax the warring sides into six months of indirect peace talks, set out in a November roadmap proposed by outside powers.
But problems had beset the Geneva gathering from the outset.
The High Negotiations Committee (HNC) delegation, which represents the main opposition grouping, arrived several days late, and reluctantly, insisting on immediate steps to alleviate the dire humanitarian situation.
This included aid getting through to besieged cities, a halt to the bombardment of civilians and the release of thousands prisoners, including some children, languishing in the Assad regime’s infamous jails.
The HNC was also outraged that as peace talks were due to start in Geneva, a major offensive was happening on the ground.
The government delegation meanwhile complained that the HNC was disorganised, had not named its negotiators and contained individuals it considered “terrorists”.
One such figure is Mohammed Alloush, a leading member of hardline rebel group Jaish Al Islam and nominally the HNC's chief negotiator, who arrived in Geneva late on Monday.
“The problem is with the criminal regime that decimates children and with Russia which always tries to stand alongside criminals,” he said, clutching a photo of a young boy he said was hurt by Russian air strikes.
The next step is for the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) of outside countries to convene, potentially on February 11 in Munich, Germany.
* Agence France-Presse
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
Liz%20Truss
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if you go
The flights
Flydubai flies to Podgorica or nearby Tivat via Sarajevo from Dh2,155 return including taxes. Turkish Airlines flies from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Podgorica via Istanbul; alternatively, fly with Flydubai from Dubai to Belgrade and take a short flight with Montenegro Air to Podgorica. Etihad flies from Abu Dhabi to Podgorica via Belgrade. Flights cost from about Dh3,000 return including taxes. There are buses from Podgorica to Plav.
The tour
While you can apply for a permit for the route yourself, it’s best to travel with an agency that will arrange it for you. These include Zbulo in Albania (www.zbulo.org) or Zalaz in Montenegro (www.zalaz.me).
SANCTIONED
- Kirill Shamalov, Russia's youngest billionaire and previously married to Putin's daughter Katarina
- Petr Fradkov, head of recently sanctioned Promsvyazbank and son of former head of Russian Foreign Intelligence, the FSB.
- Denis Bortnikov, Deputy President of Russia's largest bank VTB. He is the son of Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB which was responsible for the poisoning of political activist Alexey Navalny in August 2020 with banned chemical agent novichok.
- Yury Slyusar, director of United Aircraft Corporation, a major aircraft manufacturer for the Russian military.
- Elena Aleksandrovna Georgieva, chair of the board of Novikombank, a state-owned defence conglomerate.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Kathryn Hawkes of House of Hawkes on being a good guest (because we’ve all had bad ones)
- Arrive with a thank you gift, or make sure you have one for your host by the time you leave.
- Offer to buy groceries, cook them a meal or take your hosts out for dinner.
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- Leave no trace of your stay – if you’ve borrowed a book, return it to where you found it.
- Offer to strip the bed before you go.
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Founders: Ines Mena, Claudia Ribas, Simona Agolini, Nourhan Hassan and Therese Hundt
Date started: January 2017, app launched November 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Private/Retail/Leisure
Number of Employees: 18 employees, including full-time and flexible workers
Funding stage and size: Seed round completed Q4 2019 - $1m raised
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Seedstars, Mindshift Capital, Delta Partners Ventures, with support from the OQAL Angel Investor Network and UAE Business Angels
Alita: Battle Angel
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Stars: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Keean Johnson
Four stars
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
FIGHT CARD
Sara El Bakkali v Anisha Kadka (Lightweight, female)
Mohammed Adil Al Debi v Moaz Abdelgawad (Bantamweight)
Amir Boureslan v Mahmoud Zanouny (Welterweight)
Abrorbek Madaminbekov v Mohammed Al Katheeri (Featherweight)
Ibrahem Bilal v Emad Arafa (Super featherweight)
Ahmed Abdolaziz v Imad Essassi (Middleweight)
Milena Martinou v Ilham Bourakkadi (Bantamweight, female)
Noureddine El Agouti v Mohamed Mardi (Welterweight)
Nabil Ouach v Ymad Atrous (Middleweight)
Nouredin Samir v Zainalabid Dadachev (Lightweight)
Marlon Ribeiro v Mehdi Oubahammou (Welterweight)
Brad Stanton v Mohamed El Boukhari (Super welterweight
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