Trump Likely to Withdraw U.S. Support for Moderate Rebels

United States president-elect Donald Trump said Friday that he would likely withdraw American support for the moderate Syrian opposition, the New York Times reported.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Friday, Trump said that the U.S. priority in Syria should be fighting the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), and to focus on finding common ground with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus and its allies in Moscow.

Trump’s remarks on the conflict in Syria suggest that he is likely to draw the Central Intelligence Agency’s covert effort to support the opposition to a close. The CIA program includes providing antitank missiles to the opposition, some factions of which have recently aligned themselves on the battlefield with the former al-Qaida affiliate previously known as Jabhat al-Nusra.

Trump has said that ISIS is a far greater issue than the Assad government, indicating that the United States will no longer pressure Russia to withdraw support for the Syrian government.

Syrian Government Forces Advance in Aleppo

The Syrian military and its allies made significant advances in Aleppo on Saturday, capturing the Dahiyet al-Assad district, Reuters reported.

The advances, bolstered by heavy airstrikes, come after two weeks of an opposition counteroffensive against areas controlled by the government. The recent gains made by rebels in western Aleppo were reportedly completely reversed by government forces over the weekend.

The counteroffensive launched by rebels two weeks ago aimed to break the siege on rebel-held eastern Aleppo, which has cut off an estimated 275,000 residents from food and supplies.

Russia says that it has halted airstrikes in eastern Aleppo since October 18, but emergency workers and monitor groups have said that before the pause in airstrikes Russian bombings killed more than 450 people and targeted hospitals.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a United Kingdom-based monitor, rebel shelling has killed 92 people, including 29 children, over the last two weeks.

Chemical Weapons Watchdog Condemns Syrian Government, ISIS

The Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted in favor of condemning the Syrian government and ISIS militants for their use of toxic chemical agents, Reuters reported.

The vote by the group, whose executive body consists of 41 members, endorsed a text put together by Spain that condemned the two parties.

Spain compiled the report in a compromise to replace a draft by the U.S. that included sanctions against those responsible. The text was supported by 28 members of the council, including the United States, Germany and France, and was opposed by Russia, China, Iran and Sudan. Nine council members abstained.

In a 13-month inquiry conducted by the United Nations and OPCW, investigators found that the Syrian army had used chlorine barrel bombs against civilians in at least three separate incidents. The mission also reported the use of mustard gas by ISIS militants.

The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons, and ISIS militants have not commented on the allegations.

RECOMMENDED READS:

• Al Jazeera: The Disappeared of Syria
• Foreign Policy: U.S. Scraps Plan to Punish Syria for Using Chemical Weapons
• The Economist: Anyone for Raqqa?
• The Washington Post: Obama Directs Pentagon to Target al-Qaida Affiliate in Syria, One of the Most Formidable Forces Fighting Assad
• The Telegraph: Russian Warships Arrive Off Syrian Coast Ahead of ‘Final’ Assault on Aleppo