{"id":17864,"date":"2018-10-10T05:24:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T05:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17864"},"modified":"2018-10-10T05:24:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T05:24:00","slug":"most-heavy-arms-out-of-planned-syria-buffer-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17864","title":{"rendered":"Most heavy arms out of planned Syria buffer zone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT: Militants and Turkish-backed opposition in Syria\u2019s last major opposition stronghold have withdrawn most of their heavy weapons from a planned buffer zone ahead of a Wednesday deadline, a monitor said.<\/p>\n

\nThe pullback is the first major test of a deal brokered by regime ally Russia and opposition-backer Turkey last month to avoid what the UN warned would be the appalling humanitarian consequences of a major regime offensive.<\/p>\n

\nUnder the agreement, all factions have until Wednesday to withdraw heavy weaponry from the 15- to 20-km wide buffer zone, which rings Idlib province and adjacent areas of the northwest.<\/p>\n

\nAnd by Monday, the buffer zone must be free of all militants, including those of the region\u2019s dominant armed group, the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) alliance led by Al-Qaeda\u2019s former Syria branch.<\/p>\n

\nAnalysts had expected Ankara to have a difficult time enforcing the Sept. 17 deal but by Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the heavy weapons pullout was near complete.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe buffer zone is now almost empty of any heavy weapons on the eve of the expiry of the deadline,\u201d the Britain-based monitor\u2019s chief, Rami Abdel Rahman, said.<\/p>\n

\nHTS and smaller militant factions quietly began withdrawing their heavy arms on Saturday in an operation that continued through Monday night, the Observatory said.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"The pro-Ankara National Liberation Front said it had completed its weapons pullback on Monday.<\/p>\n

\nHTS, which controls more than two-thirds of the buffer zone around Idlib along with other militants, has not given any formal response to the Sept. 17 truce deal.<\/p>\n

\nBut by beginning to pull out its weapons, the group was implementing it \u201cde facto,\u201d Abdel Rahman said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cNo faction, rebel or jihadist, would be able to withstand the consequences of any escalation if the deal\u2019s terms were not met,\u201d Abdel Rahman said.<\/p>\n

\nA source close to HTS told AFP it had come under irresistible pressure to fall in line to avoid further hardship for the opposition-controlled zone\u2019s 3 million residents, many of whom have fled previous bloody regime offensives on other parts of Syria.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cEverybody has been forced to agree to the initiative, though reluctantly, so that people can enjoy a bit of security and safety after long years of suffering from the savagery of the regime and its allies,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

\nThe source said HTS was satisfied that the presence of the Turkish troops, whose numbers have been increased in recent weeks, would prevent any Russian-backed regime offensive.<\/p>\n

\nUnder the terms of the deal, the buffer zone is to be patrolled by Turkish troops and Russian military police.<\/p>\n

\nBut the opposition groups objected to Moscow\u2019s presence in the zone and said they received Turkish guarantees that Russian patrols had been dropped.<\/p>\n

\nFor the zone to come into effect, \u201cradical groups\u201d \u2014 interpreted as meaning HTS and other militants \u2014 must also leave the area by next Monday.<\/p>\n

\nIt is still not clear whether the militants will comply with this second deadline.<\/p>\n

\nNawar Oliver, an analyst from the Turkey-based Omran Centre for Strategic Studies, said he thought HTS would comply with the deal even if it did not publicly announce its support.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt\u2019ll still have a presence in Idlib and is not handing over any weapons or fighters, but is handing over the (buffer) zone to a neutral side, Turkey, and to the NLF,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n

\nForces loyal to Bashar Assad have retaken swathes of territory in Syria since Russia intervened in September 2015.<\/p>\n

\nA series of offensives earlier this year saw a succession of long-time opposition strongholds surrender. A similar Russia-backed assault had been expected in Idlib before the deal was announced last month.<\/p>\n

\nDespite progress in implementing the Idlib deal, Assad insisted on Sunday that the arrangement would not become permanent.<\/p>\n

\nIn comments reported by state news agency SANA, he said the accord was a \u201ctemporary measure\u201d and Idlib would eventually return to regime control.<\/p>\n

\nThe civil war has killed more than 360,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes since it erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT: Militants and Turkish-backed opposition in Syria\u2019s last major opposition stronghold have withdrawn most of their heavy weapons from a planned buffer zone ahead of a Wednesday deadline, a monitor said. The pullback is the first major test of a deal brokered by regime ally Russia and opposition-backer Turkey last month to avoid what the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17864","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\/17864","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=17864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}