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May 5th, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : The guarantor countries for the Astana talks in Syria, on Thursday, agreed on a memorandum on creating de-escalation zones in Syria. The Syrian government in Damascus stated it backs the proposal. Representatives of the opposition, walked out of the talks Wednesday and again Thursday, blasting Iran and claiming safe zones threaten Syria’s territorial integrity.
Mohammead Alloush and Osama Abu Zaid during the previous round of Astana talks in January 2017, walked out of the talks protesting – so what “deal” was reached? And by whom?
The de-escalation zones, proposed by Russia and supported by Damascus as well as Iran and Turkey, shall help “moderate rebels” disengage from groups that are not party to the de-escalation. A “deal” was reached during the 4th Astana talks in the Kazakh capital Astana on Thursday. However, contradicting statements and a generally chaotic atmosphere that barely had the semblance of diplomatic protocol leave more than doubt about the quality of the agreement as well as its content and who of the many conflicting parties actually supports the deal.
The proposal to establish so-called safe zones or de-escalation zones was tabled by Moscow on Wednesday. Moscow proposed the idea of setting up four such zones in northern, central and southern Syria, where the most intense fighting is underway between the Syrian government and different militant groups. Turkey proposed zones in Idlib, Aleppo, Latakia, and Homs. More details about these proposed zones shall reportedly be released on May 6. The Russian proposal seeks to “put an immediate end to the violence” gripping Syria and “provide the conditions for the safe, voluntary return of refugees,”reported citing a version of the initiative provided by a source close to the opposition.
Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov has announced that the fifth round of the Astana negotiations would be held in mid-July. After the agreement was reached, however, some members of the Syrian opposition delegation shouted in protest and walked out of the Astana talks. Syria’s opposition delegation in Astana said on Thursday that it could not accept creating safe zones in Syria, because the plan threatened the country’s territorial integrity. “We want Syria to maintain its integrity,” Opposition delegate Osama Abu Zaid told reporters. He added, “We are against the division of Syria. As for the agreements, we are not a party to that agreement and of course we will never be in favor (of it) as long as Iran is called a guarantor state.”
The incident in which part of the delegation of the Syrian armed opposition marched out of a plenary session in the Kazakh capital demonstrates the absence of diplomatic experience, and will hardly influence the pace of developments in Syria, Russian president’s special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, said. “I would describe this just as an element of temper and the absence of experience in political-diplomatic work,” said Lavrentyev, Russia’s chief negotiator at Astana talks. “I don’t think it will have any influence on the future developments in Syria,” he added. As the guarantor countries were signing a memorandum to create de-escalation zones in Syria earlier on Thursday, someone from the delegation yelled out “Iran is a criminal, it has no right to be among the guarantor countries”.
Then he along with one more delegate from the armed opposition slammed down their headphones and left the conference hall. Having waited for them to leave, the head of the Russian, Iranian and Turkish delegations continued the ceremony to sign the document, cheered by the other participants in the session. The signing took place in the presence of UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura.
Following the signing of the agreement that all apparently don’t agree on, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura hailed the safe zones plan as a step in the right direction towards real cessation of hostilities in Syria. “Today in Astana I think we have been able to witness an important promising positive step in the right direction in the process of de-escalation of the conflict,” he said.
No Fly Zones ? Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commented on the importance of the establishment of de-escalation zones in Syria, saying the initiative could serve as a key step to reinforce the ceasefire in the Arab country. A relatively new idea is being discussed in Astana: the formation of de-escalation zones in Syria with the participation of all interested parties and of course [getting] the consent of the Syrian government, which should be an important step toward strengthening the ceasefire,” he said after talks with his Finnish counterpart, Timo Soini, in Porvoo. Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said the Syria safe zones agreement would cover all of Idlib Province, as well as parts of the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia and Homs. The deal would ban all use of weapons and allow the delivery of humanitarian aid in the aforesaid areas, the ministry added.
Russia will do everything possible to ensure that warplanes are not used in de-escalation zones in Syria, Head of Russia’s Delegation and Russian Presidential Envoy on the Syrian Settlement Alexander Lavrentyev said on Thursday. He added “The Syrian Foreign Ministry has stated that the leadership of that country welcomes the agreements on creating de-escalation zones and ceases its aviation flights over them. … We express the confidence that after such a statement the flights by Syrian combat aircraft and their operation on the territory of de-escalation zones will cease. … As for the flights by aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Force, we will naturally cease combat operations on this territory but only if no efforts are taken from the territory of de-escalation zones to destabilize the situation on the country’s other territories,” Lavrentyev said.
“Russia is ready to take part by sending its observers to the so-called safety line zones to participate in monitoring compliance with the ceasefire and to fix violations,” said Alexander Lavrentyev. He added that “All hostilities in the areas tentatively designated by our military experts will stop as of May 6.” He said de-escalation zones in Syria established for half-a-year with possibility to extend the term. “From the sixth day, all hostilities will cease on the territories preliminarily defined by our military experts,” he said. “Further observance of the ceasefire will largely depend directly on armed opposition formations staying in de-escalation zones and also on terrorist organizations, first of all, Jabhat al-Nusra [outlawed in Russia] whose presence on these territories is quite considerable,” the envoy said.
CH/L & F/AK – nsnbc 04.05.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/05/04/fourth-astana-talks-on-syria-end-with-vague-agreement-about-de-escalation-zones/
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