{"id":18492,"date":"2018-10-15T02:22:44","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T02:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18492"},"modified":"2018-10-15T02:22:44","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T02:22:44","slug":"deadline-passes-for-syrias-idlib-buffer-without-fighters-leaving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18492","title":{"rendered":"Deadline passes for Syria’s Idlib buffer without fighters leaving"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A deadline passed on Monday without fighters leaving a planned buffer zone around Syria’s last major rebel bastion of Idlib as set out under a Russian-Turkish deal.<\/p>\n

The armed groups were supposed to withdraw from the buffer as a final condition to implementing a Russian-Turkish agreement to stave off a Syrian government offensive on the northwestern region of Idlib.<\/p>\n

The accord hung in the balance early Monday, seven years into a grinding civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.<\/p>\n

Just hours before the deadline expired, rebels vowed to continue to fight.<\/p>\n

“We have not abandoned our choice of jihad and fighting towards implementing our blessed revolution,” said Hayet Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an alliance led by al-Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate.<\/p>\n

“We appreciate the efforts of all those who strive inside and abroad to protect the liberated area,” it said in an apparent reference to Turkey.<\/p>\n

“But at the same time, we warn of the deceitfulness of the Russian occupier,” it said of President Bashar al-Assad’s ally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the deal, heavy weapons were to have been withdrawn from the horseshoe-shaped buffer by October 10 and fighters to have left by Monday.<\/p>\n

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Demilitarised zone in Syria’s Idlib province forming after deal<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Looking for a fight?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had not observed any fighters leaving the outlined demilitarised area by the time midnight struck.<\/p>\n

“The jihadists not withdrawing gives the regime and Russia an excuse to carry out a military operation at least within the demilitarised zone,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.<\/p>\n

HTS likely “tried to gain time by neither explicitly refusing nor accepting the deal” between Russia and Turkey, he said.<\/p>\n

Late Saturday, “heavy mortar shells” were fired from the planned buffer area into regime territory, killing two soldiers, the Syrian Observatory said.<\/p>\n

Rebels reportedly fulfilled the first part of the deal, with Turkish officials, armed factions, and the Observatory reporting the area was free of heavy-duty weaponry.<\/p>\n

But the mortar fire that hit an army position in Hama province appears to have violated the accord.<\/p>\n

It was unclear which groups fired the mortars late Saturday as both the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front and rival factions were present in the area. The NLF holds about half of the Idlib region and has welcomed the accord.<\/p>\n

‘Vast ramifications’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The lion’s share of Idlib is held by Hayet Tahrir al-Sham, as well as more hard-line fighters such as Hurras al-Deen and Ansar al-Islam.<\/p>\n

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Syria rebels begin moving heavy arms from Idlib buffer zone<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Those groups also control more than two-thirds of the planned buffer zone and were supposed to withdraw by Monday.<\/p>\n

Hurras al-Deen has publicly rejected the agreement, although it apparently withdrew its heavy arms from the area last week.<\/p>\n

HTS, widely considered the most powerful force in Idlib, had quietly abided by the deal’s first deadline and re-stationed heavy arms elsewhere.<\/p>\n

But getting the group to agree to the second part of the deal has proven more difficult.<\/p>\n

In a recent report for the Turkey-based Omran Center, analyst Nawar Oliver described HTS’s approval as the deal’s ultimate “test”.<\/p>\n

“If HTS acts as a spoiler to the agreement on the ground, this will probably lead to one of two scenarios: either Turkey and the NLF launch military action against HTS, or Russia will seize the opportunity with the support of the regime and its allies to enter Idlib,” Oliver said.<\/p>\n

“The ramifications of that move could be vast,” he added.<\/p>\n

Humanitarian disaster<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Assad and other top government officials have warned the Idlib deal was only a “temporary” measure.<\/p>\n

On Friday, residents around Idlib received warning messages on their mobile phones from the Syrian army. “Get away from the fighters. Their fate is sealed and near,” one said.<\/p>\n

The agreement signed on September 17 averted a large-scale offensive, which the\u00a0United Nations<\/a>\u00a0has said could cause massive displacement and bloodshed.<\/p>\n

The UN warned that such action would provoke a humanitarian disaster in the region, where as many as 800,000 people – half of whom are internally displaced from previous offensives – could be forced to flee again by a regime assault on Idlib and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n

Nearly three million people live in the zone now, hundreds of thousands of them already displaced by the brutal\u00a0seven-year war<\/a>\u00a0and others heavily dependent on humanitarian aid to survive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A deadline passed on Monday without fighters leaving a planned buffer zone around Syria’s last major rebel bastion of Idlib as set out under a Russian-Turkish deal. The armed groups were supposed to withdraw from the buffer as a final condition to implementing a Russian-Turkish agreement to stave off a Syrian government offensive on the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18492","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\/18492","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=18492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}