Syria evacuations to ease path to talks

AP

Syrian opposition fighters and their families gather at a square surrounded by damaged buildings, as they prepare to evacuate Zabadani town on Monday.

The deal seeks to calm the conflict at local level before planned peace talks next month.

Several hundred wounded militants and their families, from opposing sides of the war in Syria, were evacuated from besieged areas on Monday in a complex deal that involved busing and flying them to neighbouring countries.

The deal, carried out under the auspices of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, was the latest attempt to strike local agreements to calm the conflict before planned peace talks next month.

The exchange allowed wounded fighters and civilians to leave areas where they had been trapped: in Zabadani, the last rebel-held, mostly Sunni town along the Lebanese border; and the isolated, government-held, mostly Shiite towns of Fouaa and Kfarya in Idlib province, which is held mainly by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups.

The logistics seemed to come off smoothly, despite the challenges of coordination and moving through hostile territory and crossing the borders of Turkey, which backs insurgents in Syria, and Lebanon, whose most powerful faction, the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, supports the Syrian government of President Bashar Al-Assad. Yet deep questions remained about the deal’s context and implications.

It was unclear what would become of the many civilians and fighters remaining in the towns, as well as in Madaya, a town neighbouring Zabadani that is besieged by pro-government forces, and was not included in the deal.

Sense of uncertainty

Nisrine, a schoolteacher reached in Madaya, said she was thrilled that her husband, Ahmad, was among the fighters evacuated from Zabadani to Turkey for treatment, but concerned about what would happen to her and their 9-year-old son.

“Happiness is mixed with heartbreak,” she said. “We’re not together.” She added that her husband was “delighted but worried about us at the same time, we are still besieged and facing starvation.”

Southern Beirut, where Hezbollah is popular, was in a celebratory mood on Monday night as fighters arrived from the Shiite villages. Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters to Syria and the organisation’s flags lined the airport road.

There were concerns that the agreement could eventually amount to a swap of ethnic populations, moving Shiites from Fouaa and Kfarya to friendlier territory in Lebanon or government-held parts of Syria, and moving Sunnis to Turkey or to insurgent-held areas of Syria.

Population exchange was not officially part of the deal, which was initially struck between Hezbollah and rebels in Zabadani months ago, only to be thrown into turmoil by Russia’s unexpected military intervention on the side of Assad.

More than 300 people left Fouaa and Kefraya on buses to Turkey, while 123 left Zabadani for Lebanon. The convoys were escorted by ambulances and Red Cross and Red Crescent workers. — New York Times News Service