THE Free Syrian Army (FSA) said yesterday it would boycott the latest round of talks in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana today.

The loose coalition of Turkish and Western-aided factions accused the Syrian government of breaching the December 31 ceasefire, which was reinforced at the first Astana talks in January.

That paved the way for the fourth attempt at peace talks between Damascus and the Saudi Arabia-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC) in Geneva last month.

The Syrian government delegation, led by UN ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari, arrived in Astana yesterday as Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said mediators Russia, Iran and Turkey had confirmed their attendance.

But FSA spokesman Osama Abu Zeid said: “Rebel groups have decided not to participate in Astana” due to “unfulfilled pledges related to the cessation of hostilities.”

The Sultan Murad Division, an Ankara-backed ethnic Turkmen nationalist group within the FSA, echoed Mr Abu Zeid’s allegations.

Commander Ahmad Othman told the AFP news agency: “The regime and the militias are continuing to bomb, displace, and besiege.”

But Turkish ambassador to Russia Huseyin Dirioz told a roundtable discussion the “trilateral mechanism” of mediating states “is doing its utmost to ensure the ceasefire mechanism,” the Tass news agency reported yesterday.

“Unfortunately, we have observed ceasefire violations, especially recently,” he said. “However, concrete steps have been taken to put an end to that.”

The FSA’s boycott could potentially put it outside the ceasefire deal, like the jihadist Ahrar al-Sham, one of the two dominant factions on the HNC.

It also came a day after the al-Qaida-linked Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group issued a statement denouncing the United States for giving up its regime-change goals in Syria, failing to oppose Russian and Iranian intervention and backing Kurdish militia against Isis. The FSA and invading Turkish troops have been attacking Kurdish forces in northern Aleppo province.

In western Syria, Homs provincial governor Talal Barrazi announced a breakthrough deal for insurgents to surrender the al-Waer suburb of Homs city in return for safe passage to HTS-occupied Idlib province to the north.

The latest local truce was the first to be brokered by the Russian Reconciliation Centre in Syria. Some 2,500 gunmen and their families will be evacuated over the next 6 to 8 weeks.


West’s sanctions share the blame for refugee crisis, claims Assad

SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad said yesterday that Western sanctions on his country were as much a cause of the refugee crisis as terrorist attacks.

Mr Assad said the priority for the Syrian people was defeating terrorist groups such as Isis and Tahrir al-Sham before democratic reform.

“It’s a luxury now to talk about politics while you’re going to be killed maybe in a few minutes,” he said.

His comments to Western journalists came after a delegation of MEPs pledged to work towards lifting sanctions and restoring diplomatic relations between EU states and Damascus.

Mr Assad met the delegation led by European Parliament foreign affairs committee deputy chairman Javier Couso on Sunday.

Surveys show a vast majority of refugees from Syria are fleeing for their lives, not for economic reasons. Bombing and reprisals by the regime feature alongside insurgent violence among reasons given by Syrians for fleeing.