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US pushes Syrian opposition to break ceasefire

CIA tries to persuade over 30 moderate opposition groups to break the ceasefire, offering more weapons and arms instead, as Washington was excluded from ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey in Syria

Ersin Çelik
11:03 - 6/01/2017 Cuma
Update: 11:46 - 6/01/2017 Cuma
Yeni Şafak

The United States has started to push more than 30 moderate opposition groups to break the ceasefire, as Washington was excluded from the ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey.



The Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were discovered to conduct talks with the opposition to make them believe that the ceasefire would fail and offer them more weapons and arms.



The talks between U.S. officials and moderate opposition were conducted in Hatay and Adana provinces of Turkey along with Jordan's capital Amman.





The moderate opposition sources that have contact with Turkish officials said that the U.S. is attempting to stir up the clashes again to be a vital actor in the Syrian Civil War.



The moderate opposition representative also said that a secret agreement between the U.S. and Iran is possible, as two parties signed a similar deal in Afghanistan and Iraq wars.



The U.S.' efforts followed the Syrian opposition groups declaration that they decided to freeze any talks about their possible participation in Syrian peace negotiations being prepared by Moscow in Kazakhstan unless the Syrian regime and its Iran-backed allies end what it said were violations of a ceasefire.





In a statement, the opposition groups previously said that any territorial advances by the army and Iran-backed militias that are fighting alongside it would end the fragile ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey, which back opposing sides, that came into effect last Friday.



"The regime and its allies have continued firing and committed many and large violations," said the statement signed by the mainly moderate opposition operating under the umbrella of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA).



The moderate opposition says the regime forces are seeking to recapture the area, where a major spring provides most of Damascus's water supplies and which lies on a major supply route from Lebanon to the Syrian capital used by Hezbollah.



The ceasefire across Syria went into effect after the regime and opposition groups accepted a truce agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey on December 29.



It is estimated that more than 600,000 people have been killed in the Syrian Civil War, a figure the the Turkish Foreign Ministry recently declared.





#US
#Syria
#ceasefire
#moderate opposition
#Turkey
#Russia
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