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No Sign of Breakthrough at Syria Talks in Moscow

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No Sign of Breakthrough at Syria Talks in Moscow INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2015 Lebanon forces kill ‘militants’, arrest cleric: Security source TRIPOLI: Lebanese security forces killed two Mansour, nicknamed “Abu Omar,” and ISF members were “severely wounded” in perse them. suspected Islamist militants and arrested an Ahmad Nazer. the exchange of fire. The army launched a security plan in extremist cleric during a shootout in the Both men had been wanted for taking A statement published by the ISF con- April 2014 in an effort to stabilise Tripoli, north of the country, a security official said part in clashes with the army in Tripoli in firmed the details of the incident and added which has seen deadly rounds of fighting yesterday. October 2014 and were suspected of links to that Mansour “had in his possession an between Sunni residents who support the “An ambush was planned for a number of jihadist organisations in Syria. explosive belt that a military expert disman- Syrian uprising next door and pro-regime wanted men after monitoring their move- After the shootout, the ISF arrested tled.” Alawite residents. ments in Tripoli,” a northern port city, the Sheikh Khaled Hoblos, an extremist cleric Early yesterday, the army carried out Sunni gunmen in the city have often also official told AFP. accused of heading an anti-army militia patrols in Tripoli and took up positions in the clashed with the army. In October 2014, 11 He said that during the operation late based in the town of Bhannin, a few kilome- Sunni-majority neighbourhood of Bab el- soldiers were killed when clashes erupted Thursday, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) tres (miles) north of Tripoli. Tebbaneh. following the arrest of a Lebanese man intercepted two cars, and the ensuing A second man in the same car was also Protestors were seen throwing rocks at accused of recruiting fighters for jihadist exchange of fire killed militants Osama arrested with Hoblos. The official said two the soldiers, who fired into the air to dis- groups in Syria. — AFP Syria oppn figures seek to form alternative body BEIRUT: A group of Syrian opposition figures is seeking to form an alternative to the National Coalition body and open negotiations with President Bashar al-Assad to end their coun- try’s conflict. The “National Syrian Democratic Conference” is expected to take place in Cairo in early May and bring together some 150 opposition figures living in Syria and abroad, organisers say. They want to adopt a “Syrian National Charter” and a roadmap to a resolution of the conflict, which is now in its fifth year, said organiser and veteran dissident Haytham Manna. And unlike the National Coalition, they appear flexible on Assad’s role and the nature of any transition to end the war. “The (National) Coalition has never been able to repre- sent the whole of the Syrian opposition because it declared itself as representing all of the opposition and Syrian society even though it excludes key constituents,” Manna told AFP. “Our objective, by contrast, is to set up a delegation that is balanced, representative, democratically chosen and does not exclude anyone to face a government delegation in negotia- tions,” he said. More than 215,000 people have been killed in Syria’s con- flict, which began with anti-government protests in March 2011 but spiralled into a war after a regime crackdown. It has become a complex, multi-front war, with jihadists like the Islamic State group seizing large swathes of territory and becoming important players. Coalition divided The exiled opposition National Coalition, which is recog- nised by many in the international community, has been accused of irrelevance by rebels on the ground and has been MOSCOW: Qadri Jamil, left, former deputy prime minister representing Syria’s opposition Popular Front of Change and riven by regional interference. Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar Liberation, Samir Aita, center, a member of Syrian Democratic Forum, and Suleiman Numrud, an independent Syrian have at times had the upper hand in the body, and now its opposition member, attend a news conference in Moscow, Russia, yesterday. — AP president “Khaled Khoja is seen as Turkey’s man and as close to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood,” analyst Aron Lund wrote last month. “Like the Ankara government, Khoja has taken a hard line No sign of breakthrough on peace talks... saying that negotiations must be about how, not if, Assad should resign,” Lund wrote on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Syria in Crisis website. at Syria talks in Moscow Manna said the nascent new grouping would be more flex- ible in its approach to negotiations.—AFP More than 220,000 killed in four years of fighting MOSCOW: Talks between representa- official now with the opposition. on the need to fight terrorism and end tives of the Syrian government and “We had no illusions that these talks foreign meddling but disagreed on some members of the opposition ended could provide solutions to all the prob- what exactly that meant. in Moscow yesterday with no sign of a lems. But we managed to agree on Another point of contention was a breakthrough to end a four-year-old some points,” Jamil said. “We should see drive by Kurds for self-rule and their conflict that has killed more than the glass as half-full, not half-empty.” refusal to disarm. Damascus says only 220,000 people. But Samir Aita, of the Syria the Syrian army should be allowed to The second such meeting this year in Democratic Forum opposition group, bear arms. The opposition said that Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar said not all opposition delegates sup- should be for the future, after a political al-Assad, was marred by friction among ported the set of principles that were transition. the opposition delegates and was boy- agreed and called for trust-building Participants also said they discussed cotted by the Syrian National Coalition, measures and humanitarian issues to be chances for returning to talks in Geneva, a Western-backed group based in addressed. which collapsed last year, but no deci- Istanbul. “Despite all the casualties in Syria, it sions were taken. The delegations managed to agree seems Bashar al-Assad still does not The first round of talks in Moscow in only on a set of principles including a understand what a political solution is. I January also ended inconclusively and HOMS CITY: Syrian residents stand next to debris follow- call for a political deal based on an think the Syrian regime missed a chance Naumkin said a pause was now likely. ing a car bomb explosion yesterday, in the government- agreement reached in Geneva in 2012 to move towards a political solution,” The Syrian National Coalition has controlled majority Alawite neighbourhood of Hay al- and an end to outside meddling in Syria, Aita said. “This document doesn’t help shunned the talks because it said it Arman, located on the outskirts of the Zahraa district in Russian mediator Vitaly Naumkin and build hope, on the contrary - it destroys wanted to take part only if they led to Homs city. — AFP Qadri Jamil, a former Syrian government it.” The delegations agreed in principle Assad’s departure. —Reuters.
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