Syrian army suspends operations in Aleppo, jihadis to surrender remaining positions in city (w/ VIDEO)
The Syrian flag was hoisted over the Aleppo Citadel after the recent advances of the army in the city
Syrian government forces have suspended “active military activities” against militants in eastern Aleppo to enable the withdrawal of civilians from the city, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has announced while speaking in Hamburg, Germany.
Lavrov was speaking on Thursday on the sidelines of a meeting of ministers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The Russian foreign minister also urged the UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to “stop sabotaging” the Geneva Syria peace talks.
Speaking to reporters, he also expressed hope that those responsible for the recent attack on a Russian mobile hospital in western Aleppo will be brought to justice. The assault happened earlier this week and left two female paramedics dead and one chief pediatrician severely injured.
“We are just doing our job, probably not everyone likes it, and a recent targeted strike against our hospital is yet more proof of that. But I am convinced that all measures will be taken to punish those responsible, and to prevent similar [attacks] in the future,” Lavrov said.
He noted that the US State Department previously expressed regret over the incident, but emphasized that “it has to clarify” all the circumstances. However, according to Foreign Minister “in cases when the Syrian government can be suspected, Americans are not clarifying anything, but are immediately heading to the microphone, demanding [the perpetrators] be punished.”
On Thursday, Lavrov also met with his US counterpart John Kerry, and later in the day held a telephone call with him. Resolving the Syrian issue was at the center of these talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced. In particular, the officials discussed ways to increase joint work between military experts from both countries.
Lavrov said that he and Kerry managed to reach an agreement which includes a meeting on Saturday in Geneva “between our [Russia-US] military experts and diplomats.” The gathering should help complete the negotiations on the US proposals on Aleppo and Syria in general, which have been “sporadically” ongoing over the past days.
In the telephone call with Lavrov, Kerry agreed that military experts from Russia and the US should cooperate closely on the withdrawal of the militants from Aleppo, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“Based on the US side’s declared readiness to facilitate the withdrawal of militants from that city, the sides agreed to look into practical details of this process at the expert level in the nearest future,” the ministry said.
Meanwhile, Moscow is fully determined to complete the battle against terrorists, Lavrov said.
“Our strategy is very simple – it is entirely based on a UN Security Council resolution, which envisions to mercilessly fight terrorists till their complete destruction, while at the same time solving humanitarian problems of the civilian population and starting a political process,” he said.
Related: A report from Syrian TV, not subtitled but still eloquent, about the current situation in Aleppo:
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Reblogged this on Worldtruth.
Any White Helmets left will be low level operatives ignorant of the connections with the UK. The WH training program was a multiple phase exercise. In the first phase, the UK gave intense training to a small group of individuals (~ 30 or so from memory). In the later phases, these individuals then trained local groups themselves. Once these 30 disappear, the remainder will be totally ignorant of the original UK origins. The 30 may already have escaped or been terminated by US/UK special forces before they too left. The US/UK SF may be out-and-out pyschos but they have a keen sense of self preservation. They are also sufficiently connected to know that leaving no traces is absolutely paramount.
In terms of the actions of the potential higher WH operatives, here is a ‘heart warming story’ from Gaza.
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/12/recreates-restaurant-fleeing/
The story is about Anas Qatarji, a Syrian chef fleeing Syria to recreate his restaurant in Gaza. Except the story has many, many significant holes. He and all his staff managed to escape from Syria to Gaza traveling via Jordan and Egypt (involving an unmentioned sea crossing from Jordan to Egypt). They also brought along a load of materials from the restaurant including archeological artifacts.
“The small restaurant is an attempt to revive his original restaurant, which was adjacent to Aleppo’s historic castle ” – Which has recently been freed by the SAA, so why not escape to west Aleppo with all the other east Aleppan civilians? Why take the hazardous journey through Jordan etc?
“This 29-year-old chef, who is often concerned about who is still alive from his family in Aleppo” – So what happened to them? Did they go west into free west Aleppo? Maybe they are all now dead – at the hands of the butcher Assad, naturally – so there is no one to follow up?
“I remember a dialogue with a friend during a night of explosions by fire shells in 2013 in the Aziziyah neighborhood east of the city. ” – So the restaurant was in Aziziyah and he was around from the early days of the real violence.
“Qatarji says he buried 15 bodies himself with rescue teams in Aleppo during the fighting. ” – Rescue teams? Like the White Helmets perhaps?
“The ancient artifacts survived the destruction of his original restaurant and were successfully smuggled from Aleppo to southern Jordan then brought through the Sinai and then passed through a tunnel to Gaza, in a trip that cost Qatarji more than $3,500.” – He is remarkably wealthy, and fortunate that his possessions made it intact. How was the trip funded? By selling more artefacts? What about the fees of the staff who had no cache of materials to support them?
“To recreate the Syrian feel the chef even persuaded his waiters to lengthen their mustaches with rounded edges.” – And maybe shave excessively straggly beards and trim unkempt hair?
The photos of him and his staff show a group of very well fed males of prime fighting age. Obviously they were not put on a starvation diet by the terrorists that occupied Aziziyah.
http://19453-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/13-1.jpg
And the man himself
http://19453-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/5.jpg
A truly fortunate set of men, surviving the horrors of Aleppo in perfect health and without any physical or psychological trauma! And how fortunate for them to be able to move in to an intact restaurant in Gaza.
Thank you, Off-Guardian, for bringing some sanity to news providing in the world.
Given the absolute belligerence that Nato, and its members have shown towards Russia – even to the extent or risking a totally unnecessary nuclear war – is it any surprise that those same nations are as belligerent to Russias neighbour Syria? However the ‘Assad must go’ plan is now dead and Assad is not. So there is now a desperate attempt to rewrite failure as ‘almost success but for those pesky Rooskys’.
The White Helmets are clearly a tool in the US/UK Armoury of Hybrid Warfare. They also coordinate closely with IS and its associates, as evidenced by the video of them promptly removing the body after an IS execution. So Syrian troops will not react kindly to them. Yet it is Russia that is offering a pause in hostilities to allow the civilians and the surrenderers to escape.
In the second Chenchnyan campaign, the Russians would advance towards a village/town and tell the ‘elders’ that if the village made no trouble, they would be spared; if there was even a single rifle shot, the village would be laid waste with Katyusha rocket salvos. AFAIK the Russians kept their word. So there is precedent for accepting the Russian offer of safe surrender that the White helmets might just have to accept. There may also be the issue of ‘Special Forces’ in the area. These dudes would make a great photo op 🙂
There are but few good things to come out of this blood soaked chaos.
1: The Russian efforts at diplomacy have been aimed at reductions in civilian casualties.
In doing this they have handed major lessons in diplomatic skills to the clearly incompetent Western Politicos.
2: By being truthful, as much as possible in time of war, they have increasingly exposed the
MSM (Main Stream Media) as serial liars in the service of Empire.
At a deep level, people don’t like being lied to.
So they walk from MSM and look for alternatives.
Like Off-Guardian 🙂
Evidence?? Jo6pac’s reaction to a litany of lies, and the consequent unforseen Trump victory
Who says the Guardian’s journalists are without a sense of humour? Even at times like these there’s no holding them back, even though some might find the humour close to unacceptable, dark, satire. After all we’re talking about the lives of what appear, at least to the Guardian, like loveable little Bana, to be ‘real’ people. This article does show that some people at the Guardian know the ‘Truth’ about Aleppo and refuse to remain silent or bow to any form of groupthink.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/08/white-helmets-in-east-aleppo-plead-for-help-as-regime-advances
The comments section was interesting on this Guardian piece, proving yet again that many punters don’t buy into their whitewashed brainwashing.
Russia needs to be wary of letting the US help with any withdrawal of militants, I’m sure Lavrov knows they will have a considerable number of embedded operatives there – hence the White Helmets worrying about their treatment by the Syrian army.
Of course the piece in the Guardian may just be laying the ground for their supposed disappearance at the hands of their captors – if they were never there in the first place?