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Saturday, February 6, 2016
Excerpts: Syria: No ceasefire before borders sealed.Turkey-Syria border closing. Iran re Saudi. Hizbullah commander killed February 06, 2016

Excerpts: Syria: No ceasefire before borders sealed.Turkey-Syria border
closing. Iran re Saudi. Hizbullah commander killed February 06, 2016

+++SOURCE:Al Arabiya News 6 Feb,’16:”Syria signals no ceasefure before
shutting borders”,Reuters, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:Syria:No ceasefire before borders sealed

QUOTE”Syria’s foreign minister signaled on Saturday[6Feb]a ceasefire would
be difficult or impossible before the borders with Turkey and Jordan were
sealed”

FULL TEXT:Syria’s foreign minister signaled on Saturday[6 Feb] a ceasefire
would be difficult or impossible before the borders with Turkey and Jordan
were sealed, and before a list of terrorist groups operating in Syria is
agreed.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem, speaking in a televised news conference,
said he was citing his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who had said “a
ceasefire would not be possible before the borders with Turkey and Jordan
are controlled, and before agreement on lists of terrorist organizations, it
is difficult to achieve that.”

Rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad have received supplies via
both Turkey and Jordan.

Moualem also said any ground incursion without state approval would be
considered an act of aggression and aggressors will go home in coffins.

The foreign minister also said that the Syrian government went to talks
without preconditions and will not implement any preconditions.

His comments capped a week that saw the collapse of U.N.-led efforts to
launch indirect peace talks between the Syrian government and an opposition
delegation in Geneva.

The talks broke down in large part because of Syrian government offensives,
including on the outskirts of Aleppo, once the country’s largest city. The
offensive, aimed at encircling rebel strongholds in Aleppo, was backed by
intense Russian airstrikes and sent thousands of area residents fleeing
toward a closed Turkish border.

The foreign minister said the government advances signaled that the
five-year-old Syria war is nearing its end. “I can say, from the
achievements for our armed forces ... that we are now on track to end the
conflict,” he said. “Like it or not, our battlefield achievements indicate
that we are headed toward the end of the crisis.”

Opposition representatives have said they cannot be expected to negotiate in
Geneva at a time when the Syrian government and its allies, including
Russia, are escalating attacks on rebel strongholds.


+++SOURCE:Al Arabiya News 6 Feb,’16:”A Turkish border crossing closed as
Syrians flee”,by Staff Writer with Reuters,Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Turkey-Syria border closing

QUOTE:”Turkish P.M. [4 Feb]:Ankara would allow the latest group
of(Syrian)refugees into the country”

FULL TEXT: Turkey's foreign minister said Saturday [6 Feb]his country would
keep its “open border policy” for refugees, but did not indicate when
thousands of Syrians camped out near a closed frontier post could cross.

“We still keep this open border policy for these people fleeing from the
aggression from the regime as well as air strikes of Russia,” Mevlut
Cavusoglu said as he left a meeting with his EU counterparts in Amsterdam.

“We have received already 5,000 of them, another 50,000 to 55,000 are on
their way and we cannot leave them there alone because air strikes are
ongoing and also regime forces supported by Iran Shia militias are attacking
these civilians as well.”

A senior government official says Turkey is caring for some 30-35,000
displaced Syrians on the Syrian side of the border but had no immediate
plans to let them in.

Governor Suleyman Tapsiz of the border province of Kilis said Saturday[6
Feb] Turkey had the ability to care for the Syrians inside Syria for the
time being but had made preparations to allow them in in the event of an
“extraordinary crisis.” He did not elaborate.

Earlier, Turkey appeared to be preparing for a new influx of refugees
fleeing a major offensive by Syria’s Russian-backed regime, with tens of
thousands of Syrians camped out near the border crossing.

The United Nations said some 20,000 people have gathered at the Bab al-Salam
crossing, hoping to reach Turkey, which already hosts more than two million
refugees from the bloody conflict.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights for its part estimated some 40,000
people had been forced to leave their homes since last Monday[2 Feb..

Turkish authorities were working to free up space within the existing camps
along the Syrian border to accommodate the new arrivals.

Opposition forces and some 350,000 civilians were inside the rebel-held
Aleppo city, which was targeted in the government offensive.

An AFP correspondent saw trucks carrying parts for tents Friday to the
refugee camp close to the border gate on the Turkish side which faces the
Bab al-Salam crossing on Syrian soil.

At least four Turkish aid trucks were also seen returning to Turkey after
making deliveries of food to the Syrian side of the border.

Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said in a
statement that it had finalized preparations for a possible influx.

Turkey faced a similar experience in 2014 when 200,000 refugees fled the
Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane over three days as the ISIS and Syrian Kurdish
fighters battled for control.

AFAD said a registration system that complies with international standards
was set up to receive refugees, which includes a health scan, food and
shelter.

The government offensive is targeting the Aleppo province, which was once a
rebel stronghold, providing easy access to neighboring Turkey, a key
opposition backer.

The city itself has been divided between rebel control in the east and
government control in the west since mid-2012.

But government forces have steadily chipped away at rebel-held territory
around the city and their advances this week leave the opposition there
virtually surrounded.

The advance is the most significant outcome yet of the Russian intervention
that began on September 30, ostensibly targeting the Islamic State group and
other “terrorists.”

Analysts and activists say Russia’s strikes have always disproportionately
targeted non-jihadist rebels in an attempt to bolster President Bashar
al-Assad’s government.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Russia Friday to implement a
ceasefire in Syria, saying its bombing campaign was killing women and
children in large numbers and “has to stop.”

EU: Turkey must keep border open
Meanwhile, top EU officials on Saturday reminded Turkey of its international
obligations to keep its frontiers open to refugees.
“The Geneva convention is still valid which states that you have to take in
refugees,” EU Enlargement and Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn
said as he went into talks on the migrant crisis with EU foreign ministers
and their counterparts from countries seeking EU membership, including
Turkey.

An EU diplomatic source told AFP that the foreign ministers, meeting
informally in Amsterdam, would take the opportunity to voice their concerns
over the fate of the refugees fleeing the government offensive against rebel
forces in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a Syria donors conference in
London on Thursday[4 Feb] that Ankara would allow the latest group of
refugees into the country.

More than a million migrants landed in the 28-nation European Union last
year, most of them crossing into Greece from Turkey, and then making their
way through the Balkans to Germany and other northern member states.

Such numbers have put huge strains on the bloc and the Schengen
passport-free zone, with several countries - among them Germany, Austria,
Hungary, Sweden - re-introducing border controls while Brussels struggles to
find a comprehensive solution


+++SOURCE:Naharnet (Lebanon) 6 Feb.’16:”Iran:Saudi Won’t Dare Send Troops to
Syria”, by Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Iran re Saudi
QUOTE:”Saudi Arabia wouldn’t dare send troops to war-torn Syria, the chief
of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said Saturday[6Feb]
Saudi Arabia wouldn't dare send ground troops to war-torn Syria, the chief
of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said Saturda[6 Feb], after Riyadh
opened up the possibility of such a deployment.

The Sunni-ruled kingdom, Iran's regional rival, has said it could
"contribute positively" if the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State
(IS) jihadist group in Syria decided on ground action.

But Major General Ali Jafari, commander of the Guards, said such a move
would amount to suicide for Saudi Arabia.

"I don't think they would dare do that... If they do, they will inflict a
coup de grace on themselves," he said, according to Fars news agency, a
media outlet close to the Guards.

"They thought that through support and financial aid they could make gains
in Syria but the recent victories by the resistance front have disrupted all
of their calculations," Jafari said.

Iran, the strongest regional ally of President Bashar al-Assad, openly
provides financial and military support to the Damascus government but
denies having troops on the ground in Syria.

Tehran provides military advisers to Assad's army, as well as organising
Iranian, Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani "volunteers" to fight rebels in Syria.

Jafari was speaking in Tehran at a funeral ceremony of Brigadier General
Mohsen Ghajarian and five other Guards members killed Wednesday[3 Feb] in
Aleppo province of northern Syria.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Expediency Council and a former chief of
the Guards, also poured scorn on Saudi Arabia's possible presence on the
ground in Syria.

"In such a situation, the clash of Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Syria
together, and then the entrance of America... eventually a large regional
war is possible," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

If the Saudi government, known for "madly taking action", embarked on such a
move the entire region other than Iran but "including Saudi Arabia, will be
consumed by fire".

Iran, the Middle East's main Shiite power, and Saudi Arabia have long been
at odds over the conflict in Syria.

The Gulf kingdom severed all ties with Iran last month after demonstrators
stormed its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad, Iran's second city,
following Riyadh's execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Saudi Shiite
cleric and activist.


+++Source:Naharnet (Lebanon)6 Feb.’16:”Reports:Hizbullah Commander Killed in
Allepo Shiite Town”,by Naharnet Newsdesk
· SUBJECT: Hizbullah commander killed

· OUOTE:”Hundreds of Hizbullah fighters have been killed in Syria”

FULL TEXT:A Hizbullah field commander has been killed in clashes in a
flashpoint Shiite town in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, media
reports said on Friday[5 Feb].

“The commander Haidar Fariz Merhi and the fighter Hussein Hassan Jawad, who
both hail from the western Bekaa town of Mashghara, were killed fighting in
the Nubol and Zahraa area north of Aleppo,” Al-Arabiya television reported.

The pro-Hizbullah South Lebanon news portal confirmed Merhi's death, also
describing him as a Hizbullah commander.

According to Al-Arabiya, a third Hizbullah fighter was killed in Syria in
recent days.

It identified him as Ali Moussa Nassour, saying he hailed from the southern
Beirut suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh.

Hizbullah, the Syrian army and allied militiamen on Wednesday broke a long
running rebel siege of on the Shiite villages of Nubol and Zahraa.

The two villages, located in the middle of opposition territory, had been
blockaded by rebel groups for around three years. The development marked a
major victory for the regime forces and their allies, which have made
significant advances in the province in the past few days – backed by
massive Russian airstrikes.

Regime troops, Hizbullah fighters and allied militiamen arrived in the two
towns on Thursday morning to cheering crowds who threw rice and ululated,
according to footage shown on state television.

Hundreds of Hizbullah fighters have been killed in Syria since the party's
decision to intervene militarily in the conflict.
=============
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA

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