Region

BEIRUT — In one besieged neighbourhood after another, weary rebels have turned over their weapons to the Syrian government in exchange for an easing of suffocating blockades that have prevented food, medicine and other staples from reaching civilians trapped inside.

The local ceasefires struck in at least four neighbourhoods in and around the Syrian capital in recent weeks have brought an end to the shelling and most of the fighting in the affected areas. While deep distrust lingers on both sides, in some neighbourhoods the lull has prompted residents displaced by earlier violence to return.

The government touts the truces as part of its programme of “national reconciliation” to end Syria’s crisis, which has killed more than 140,000 people since March 2011. But activists and rebels describe the deals as the final stage of a ruthless tactic President Bashar Assad’s government has employed to devastating effect: shelling and starving fighters and civilians alike in opposition-held areas into submission.

With two rounds of United Nations-brokered peace talks with the political opposition in exile failing to make any substantial progress, and neither side able to clinch a military victory, Assad may be counting on such local truces to pacify flashpoint areas around the capital.

The deals carry two additional benefits for Assad: they free up troops in his overstretched military to be shifted to fighting fronts elsewhere in the country; and they allow the government to present itself abroad as a responsible actor actively trying to broker peace at home.

“It’s important for the regime to have reconciliation,” said an activist in Damascus who goes by the name of Abu Akram. “They want us to submit or be hungry. They want to free up their troops for other battles.”

The exact terms have varied depending on the balance of power in each area, but the truces generally have followed a basic formula: the rebels relinquish their heavy weapons and observe a ceasefire in exchange for the government to allow aid into the communities.

In many cases, gunmen also have had to hand themselves over to authorities. Some have returned from government custody, others have not, activists say.

“Part of the regime strategy, virtually since the beginning of the armed struggle, has been to separate the people from the rebels. To try to break the connection between the rebels and their popular support base,” said Jeffrey White, a defense fellow at The Washington Institute.

The authorities have relied on individuals with good government ties from the respective communities to act as middlemen and shuffle between the sides to broker the agreements.

The first major deal was struck in the Damascus suburb of Moadamiyeh, where residents raised the two-starred government flag over the city in late December. The latest truce took hold last week in the capital’s Babila neighborhood, where news cameras captured footage of armed opposition fighters with full beards standing next to government soldiers in camouflage uniforms.

In between, ceasefires also have been struck in Beit Sahim, Yalda, Barzeh, as well as a shaky agreement in the Palestinian camp of Yarmouk in Damascus. A pause in the fighting also allowed aid shipments in and civilians out of the Old City of Homs.

Rebels in Barzeh, a strategically located neighborhood in northeast Damascus where fighters had battled the military to a stalemate, wrangled the most favorable terms. Fighters there have kept most of their weapons, and now man joint checkpoints with government forces.

In most of the other areas, however, the truces swing heavily in the government’s favour.

In Moadamiyeh, for example, the military pounded the community with artillery and air strikes for nearly a year. Government forces eventually encircled the town with checkpoints, then refused to allow in food, medicine, clean water and fuel.

Conditions turned desperate for the estimated 8,000 civilians still inside. Malnutrition was rife. Residents resorted to eating boiled grape leaves and raw olives because they had run out of food. Activists said children and the elderly were badly affected and frequently fell sick with illnesses exacerbated by hunger.

With little hope of breaking the siege, the town west of Damascus agreed in late December to the government’s terms. Since then, conditions have improved, and some residents who fled have returned. But the government hasn’t lifted the siege. Rather, it permits food shipments to enter in small batches, a tactic that allows the authorities to maintain their leverage over residents.

“The siege wasn’t broken, they still have their tanks and troops and checkpoints,” said Qusai Zakarya, an activist from Moadamiyeh who recently fled to Beirut after being held by authorities for 17 days. “Everybody who wants to go in and out should have their permission. It’s like a prison.”

He said authorities stopped food shipments into Moadamiyeh this week after the rebels refused to hand over all of the weapons the government demanded, and for siphoning some of the aid for residents to families from the nearby town of Daraya, which is still under government siege.

Daraya provides a stark example of the price of rebuffing truce overtures. For weeks, government helicopters have conducted a brutal aerial campaign to devastating effect, pounding the suburb with massive barrel bombs — large containers packed with fuel, explosives and scraps of metal.

For rebels, the ceasefires are a particularly bitter tactic because Syrian officials paint the “reconciliation committees” as peacemakers.

“It’s a submission strategy,” said a rebel in the besieged neighborhood of Mleiha who goes by the nom de guerre of Abu Mansour.

While Mleiha has held out so far, Abu Mansour said he understands why some neighborhoods opt to accept the government’s terms, even if they are unfavourable.

“The people are tired. They will do anything to let in food,” he said. “I’m not talking about rebels. I’m talking about people: the barber, the grocer, the housewife. They are the people who are blockaded. They don’t have water. They don’t have food. They have no communication with the outside world. There’s nothing.”

White said the starvation and use of barrel bomb tactics have the effect of pacifying rebellious areas.

“It doesn’t necessarily transfer them to full regime control, but for the regime it’s working,” he said.

One place where a tentative truce has been reached to allow in small, intermittent shipments of aid is the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmouk in Damascus. The conditions there provide a window into the desperation weighing down all of the besieged areas.

The head of the UN relief agency that supports Palestinian refugees, Filippo Grandi, visited the camp this week, and described the haunting scene of emaciated and desperate people emerging from a cityscape of charred, blown-out buildings and gray, rubble-strewn streets to collect aid shipments.

“It’s like the appearance of ghosts,” Grandi said. “These are people that have not been out of there, that have been trapped in there not only without food, medicines, clean water — all the basics — but also probably completely subjected to fear because there was fierce fighting and noisy fighting going all along, and that was the most shocking point. They can hardly speak.”

BAGHDAD — More than 700 people died in violence in Iraq in February, not including nearly 300 reported deaths in western Anbar province, where security forces have been battling Sunni Muslim rebels since January, the United Nations said on Saturday.

The world body said local authorities had recorded 298 civilian deaths in Anbar, but that it could not confirm the figures independently due to the chaos in the desert region.

Outside Anbar, the bloodshed was worst in Baghdad, where 239 civilians were killed, followed by Salahuddin province to the north with 121 dead. A total of 1,381 people were wounded.

The United Nations said it had confirmed 703 deaths in Iraq in February, compared to 733 in January, excluding Anbar.

The figures suggest that violence has not abated since 2013 when 7,818 civilians were killed. That was Iraq’s deadliest year since 2008, when the civilian death toll stood at 6,787.

The bloodshed remains below the levels seen in 2006 and 2007 when sectarian Shiite-Sunni killings reached their peak.

Insecurity worsened dramatically in April when troops and police forcibly cleared a Sunni protest camp north of Baghdad, killing dozens of protesters, most of them unarmed.

The bloodshed sparked widespread clashes pitting Sunni fighters against the Shiite-led government and marked the start of a relentless bombing campaign by Al Qaeda-linked militants against mostly Shiite targets.

The growing power of Sunni militants, who have profited from the civil war in neighbouring Syria, prompted Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki to order an offensive in western Anbar in December.

The United Nations told Iraqis the only way they could stop the violence was by bridging their differences. Iraq’s political elite remains deeply divided along sectarian lines.

“The political, social and religious leaders of Iraq have an urgent responsibility to come together in the face of the terrorist threat that the country is facing,” UN special representative to Iraq Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement.

ALGIERS — Algerian police Saturday dispersed a demonstration in the capital against ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika seeking a fourth term in office in April elections.

Bouteflika, who has been in power since 1999 and turns 77 on Sunday, announced a week ago he would seek reelection in an April 17 vote, after speculation his frail health would stop him from running.

A group opposed to a fourth term for Bouteflika had called for the demonstration online, and those taking part on Saturday included journalists and rights activists.

Protesters chanted “no to a fourth term” and “15 years is enough”, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

There has been growing concern about Bouteflika serving another term, given the physical state of the president, who was hospitalised in Paris for three months last year after suffering a mini stroke.

CAIRO — The authorities in Egypt arrested a 19-year-old son of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi Saturday, accusing him of possessing hashish cigarettes, a charge denied by his brother.

Security officials said police found two joints on Abdullah Morsi and a friend who were in a car parked by the roadside in Qalyubia province north of Cairo.

The two were arrested for questioning, they added.

Morsi’s other son, Osama, dismissed the allegation.

He said Abdullah was stopped at a police checkpoint while on his way home.

“He has been arrested. They are fabricating the case. My brother doesn’t even smoke,” Osama, a lawyer, told AFP.

“This is a clear attempt to defame the family of president Mohamed Morsi. This incident is part of a series of violations committed by the state against us.”

Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood have been target of a relentless government crackdown since the Islamist was ousted last July after just a year in office.

Amnesty International says more than 1,400 people have been killed, mostly Morsi supporters, in street clashes since his ouster.

Morsi himself and several Brotherhood leaders have been put on trial.

TEHRAN — Five Iranian soldiers who were abducted in early February by Sunni extremists and taken across the border into Pakistan have been released, the army’s deputy chief of staff said Saturday.

They were kidnapped in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, scene of unrest in recent years by the Jaish-ul Adl militant group.

“The five Iranian soldiers kidnapped and taken to Pakistan have been freed,” said General Massoud Jazayeri in remarks carried by the Fars news agency.

Jazayeri gave no further details about the release of the soldiers.

But earlier on Saturday, Pakistani officials said they had rescued 11 kidnapped foreigners — eight Iranians, two Tunisians and one Yemeni — in the southwest town of Turbat near the Iranian border.

The security officials told AFP that those freed did not include the Iranian soldiers.

Their abduction infuriated authorities in the Shiite Islamic republic of Iran, and strained relations between the neighbouring states.

Iran warned in mid-February that it could send troops across the border to secure the release of the kidnapped soldiers, and denounced what it called Pakistan’s inability to secure its own borders.

The foreign minister summoned a senior Pakistani diplomat and demanded that Islamabad “act firmly against the leaders and members of the terrorist group who have fled to Pakistan”, media reported at the time.

Jaish-ul Adl, whose name in Arabic means Army of Justice, was formed in 2012 and has since claimed several operations targeting Iranians in Sistan-Baluchestan.

DUBAI — President Hassan Rouhani urged Iran’s military leaders on Saturday to let diplomacy prevail in dealing with potential foreign threats, in a clear reference to efforts to end the nuclear dispute and decades of hostile relations with the West.

“It is very important to formulate one’s sentences and speeches in a way that is not construed as threat, intention to strike a blow,” Rouhani said in a meeting with Iran’s top military echelon.

“We must be very careful in our calculations. Launching missiles and staging military exercises to scare off the other side is not good deterrence, although a necessity in its proper place,” the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

“A misfire could burst into flames and wreak havoc to everything.”

A moderate elected by landslide last June, Rouhani has broken with tradition and pursued compromise with the United States and its allies on uranium enrichment, a sensitive issue that resulted in global economic sanctions against Iran.

But these efforts run counter to belligerent slogans from Islamic hardliners who dominate the elite Revolutionary Guards and the regular army to a lesser extent.

While Iranian nuclear negotiators were haggling with world powers in Vienna last month, many generals were beating war drums at home and flexing their military muscles.

“Our forefathers primed us for the final epic battle,” said the chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad-Ali Jafari last month.

Such belligerence was absent from Rouhani’s speech on Saturday.

“Our foreign policy is based on detente and trust-building with the world. This is not just a slogan,” he said

“Iran is sincere in saying it is not out to attack anyone. Aggression is our red line. Weapons of mass destructions are our red line.”

LONDON — A British man once held at Guantanamo Bay turned human rights campaigner told a court in London on Saturday he would plead not guilty to providing training and funding terrorism in Syria, police said.

Moazzam Begg, 45, who was released without charge from the US military prison in Cuba in 2005, was detained at his home in Birmingham in central England last week and charged with terrorism offences dated between October 2012 and April 2013.

He appeared at Westminster magistrates court on Saturday and was remanded in custody to appear at London’s Old Bailey criminal court on March 14.

It is the first time he has ever faced any charges.

Begg was held by the US government at Bagram detention centre in Afghanistan, then Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, for nearly three years after being arrested in Pakistan in February 2002 suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda.

After his release, he founded Cage, a human rights organisation that campaigns for the rights of people detained during counter-terrorism operations.

Cage accused British authorities of “retraumatising” Begg by refusing to grant him bail, saying this was part of a campaign to criminalise legitimate activism.

“This is a politically motivated arrest and very much bears the hallmarks of trying to criminalise legitimate Muslim activity by reinforcing a climate of fear,” said Asim Qureshi, research director of Cage.

Begg was one of four Britons arrested last Tuesday in central England on suspected Syria-related terrorism offences.

Another of those, 44-year-old woman Gerrie Tahari, also appeared in Westminster magistrates court on Saturday charged with facilitating terrorism overseas.

“When asked to give an indication of how they intended to plead they both replied not guilty,” said a statement from West Midlands police.

Tahari was also remanded in custody to appear on March 14.

Two other men, aged 20 and 36, who were arrested the same day, remain in police custody, police said.

The arrests came as concerns mount in Britain over the number of its nationals travelling to Syria to help rebels fighting President Bashar Assad.

Police fear they may become radicalised by Islamists or attend terrorist training camps before returning to Britain where they could pose a security risk.

British police had already arrested 16 people on suspicion of terrorism offences related to Syria this year, some as young as 17, compared to 24 such arrests in all of 2013. .

Security assessments estimate that up to 500 Britons have gone to Syria in the past two years of which about half are thought to have returned home. This number includes those engaged in aid or humanitarian efforts.

British law was changed last year to make it easier for the government to confiscate the passport from anyone whose “actual or suspected” activities are deemed contrary to the public interest.

WASHINGTON — Robert Ford, the US ambassador to Syria who has been Washington’s main pointman in efforts to end the war working with opposition leaders battling President Bashar Assad, stepped down Friday.

“Robert Ford is retiring from the foreign service today after nearly 30 years of distinguished service,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

She admitted that the departure of Ford, who over the past three years has built up extensive contacts with the opposition leaders and was instrumental in helping to bring them to the Geneva peace talks, would be a loss.

“His extraordinary leadership has guided our response to one of the most formidable foreign policy challenges in the region,” Psaki said.

“From the outbreak of the crisis, Ambassador Ford has worked tirelessly in support of the Syrian people in their pursuit of freedom and dignity.”

A fluent Arabic speaker, Ford became Washington’s first ambassador to Damascus in five years when he was named in late 2010.

But just a few months into his post, Ford was abruptly pulled out of the country in October 2011 amid fears for his safety when he became a vocal critic of the Assad regime and its crackdown on the pro-democracy uprising that erupted in March that year. He never returned full-time to Syria.

Ford was increasingly criticised by the regime, which accused him of helping incite violence and was angered when he visited protest hubs outside the capital in a show of solidarity with pro-democracy demonstrators.

In late September 2011, Ford was blocked inside a building for a few hours during a meeting with opposition member Hassan Abdel Azim when nearly 100 angry pro-regime protesters tried to storm the offices.

Washington decided to close the embassy in 2012 as the uprising descended swiftly into a bloody civil war.

Since then, Ford has shuttled between the United States and Turkey, spending hours huddled with opposition leaders based out of Istanbul as he sought to help them form a more cohesive and inclusive body.

Legacy to guide bid 

to end war

Ford has also spoken passionately and angrily about the mounting atrocities in the war, which will enter its fourth year next month and in which more than 136,000 people have been killed and millions displaced.

A career foreign service officer, Ford also served as deputy chief of mission in Baghdad from 2008-2009. He was ambassador to Algeria from 2006 to 2008 and had postings in Bahrain, Cairo and Yaounde.

But he often spoke of his love for Syria, its culture, heritage and people.

“There’s no question that his departure is a loss, not just because of his contacts, but because of his expertise, because of his knowledge,” Psaki said.

She announced that for the time being, as the White House mulls a replacement for Ford, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Lawrence Silverman would take up the helm.

“There will be a continuity, given that there [is] a range of officials who will still be in place,” Psaki said.

“Obviously, part of what I’m sure will be looked at is the role that the next person will play in terms of their engagement with the opposition.”

The UN-led Geneva II peace talks broke down on February 15 and no new date has yet been set for them to reconvene.

But Psaki insisted that as the United States seeks to prepare for “a new Syria”, Ford’s “legacy will guide our efforts to support Syrians and lay the foundation for a more hopeful future”.

“The president and the secretary [John Kerry] of course are both incredibly grateful for his service.”

ZINTAN, Libya — There was confusion Thursday over the trial of Seif Al Islam, son of slain Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi, after a scheduled hearing on charges of threatening national security did not take place.

Seif, whose charges stem from the 2011 uprising that ousted his father, last appeared in court in the western city of Zintan on December 12.

His lawyer said then that the next hearing was scheduled for Thursday, and prosecution spokesman Seddik Al Sour confirmed that as recently as Wednesday.

But Sour retracted that Thursday. He said the hearing had actually been scheduled for last Thursday but had then been postponed because it coincided with voting for an assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution.

“It is up to the Zintan court to fix a new hearing date,” he said.

On October 24, a Tripoli court indicted Seif and 36 other Qadhafi aides for a raft of alleged offences during the uprising.

But Zintan rebels refused to have him transferred to the capital, despite a request from Libya’s prosecutor general and even though the authorities say his jail is under state control.

Seif, Qadhafi’s former heir apparent, is still wanted for trial by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the uprising.

In May, the ICC rejected Tripoli’s request to try him in Libya because of doubts over a fair trial. Tripoli has appealed the decision.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch called on Libyan authorities to provide proper defence counsel to Seif and his codefendants to ensure they receive a fair trial.

The New York-based watchdog said that during visits by its staff last month, both Seif and former spy chief Abdullah Senussi had complained they had no representation at all during interrogations and pre-trial hearings in their prosecution for gross abuses during the uprising.

The charges include murder, kidnapping, complicity in incitement to rape, plunder, sabotage, embezzlement of public funds and acts harmful to national unity.

NEW DELHI — Iran’s nuclear negotiations are “going well”, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday, ahead of a crucial meetings to negotiate a comprehensive nuclear deal.

Iran and a group of world powers agreed last week on a timetable and framework for the negotiations for an accord that would allay Western concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of crippling sanctions.

Under a landmark interim deal clinched in November, Iran agreed to curb parts of the programme for six months in exchange for limited sanctions relief. The agreement came into effect on January 20.

“The [nuclear] negotiations are going well ... I’m hoping by the first deadline [July 20] we will reach an agreement,” Zarif told reporters on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi.

Leading a high-ranking delegation, Zarif is scheduled to hold talks with top Indian officials to open a “new chapter” with New Delhi on his two-day visit that began Thursday.

Negotiators hope to reach a final accord by July 20, when the interim agreement reached in November is due to expire.

A top Iranian negotiator told IRNA news agency that Iran and world powers would hold technical talks on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors next week.

He did not specify dates, but the board is set to meet in Vienna from March 3 to 7.

Political directors from the P5+1 group of world powers — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany — are set to resume talks with Iranian nuclear negotiators on March 17 in Vienna.

Western nations and Israel have long suspected Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons capability alongside its civilian programme, charges denied by Tehran.

“From our point of view it is essential for the world to accept that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful,” said Zarif in his speech at the New Delhi event.

“We do not have an interest in possession of nuclear weapons.”