{"id":15810,"date":"2018-09-20T22:27:15","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T22:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15810"},"modified":"2018-09-20T22:27:15","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T22:27:15","slug":"un-threat-to-idlib-civilians-remains-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15810","title":{"rendered":"UN: Threat to Idlib civilians remains high"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nThe deal to avoid a Syrian regime offensive on Idlib province is still being worked out by Russia and Turkey, the UN said on Thursday, stressing that the threat to civilians remained high.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis is not a peace deal. It is an aversion of (a) whole-scale-war deal,\u201d the head of the UN Humanitarian Taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, said in Geneva.<\/p>\n

\nSyrian regime ally Russia and rebel supporter Turkey reached an agreement to create a demilitarized buffer zone in Idlib, Syria\u2019s last opposition bastion, where half of its 3 million residents have been displaced from areas retaken by Syrian forces.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"While briefing the task force about the pact on Thursday, Russian and Turkish envoys made clear they \u201care still working… on the details,\u201d Egeland said.<\/p>\n

\nHe expressed hope it was an indication that \u201cthe big war was averted\u201d in Idlib, although Russia stressed it would continue operating against fighters it identifies as terrorists.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI see a great potential for a lot of fighting,\u201d Egeland said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe are concerned for the civilians in these areas, so it is not over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe UN has repeatedly warned that a full-scale assault on Idlib could trigger the bloodiest episode of Syria\u2019s seven-year war, which has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions.<\/p>\n

\nDespite the ongoing concerns, Egeland said he was \u201crelieved\u201d for now.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe outcome here was the least bad of (the) realistic solutions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nThe leader of Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah militia has welcomed the Russian-Turkey agreement agreement signed in Sochi, calling it a \u201cstep on the road to making a political solution possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHassan Nasrallah said his group may reduce the number of its fighters in Syria because of an easing of the conflict, particularly after the recent agreement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nIt \u201cwill take Syria in the next weeks and months to a new phase,\u201d Nasrallah said in a televised speech to supporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nHe said the deal\u2019s success will depend whether it\u2019s properly implemented. \u201cWe will remain there even after the Idlib accord,\u201d Nasrallah said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe will stay until further notice,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

\nOn Thursday, Nasrallah said Hezbollah had acquired \u201cprecision missiles\u201d despite extensive efforts by Israel to prevent the movement developing this capability.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt has been done. The resistance now owns precision missiles\u201d as part of its weaponry, Nasrallah said in a televised address.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAttempts in Syria to block the way toward this (missile) capability\u201d have failed, Nasrallah said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIf Israel imposes a war on Lebanon, it will face a fate that it never would have expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIsrael has fought several conflicts against Hezbollah, the last in 2006.<\/p>\n

\nThe Israeli military believes Hezbollah has between 100,000 and 120,000 short-range missiles and rockets, as well as several hundred longer-range missiles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The deal to avoid a Syrian regime offensive on Idlib province is still being worked out by Russia and Turkey, the UN said on Thursday, stressing that the threat to civilians remained high. \u201cThis is not a peace deal. It is an aversion of (a) whole-scale-war deal,\u201d the head of the UN Humanitarian Taskforce for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":15811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}