DAILY SCOPE: Russia-US Awaited Agreement... Assad’s Days Lengthy!

Fatima Haydar

LEBANESE DAILIES

Newspapers' Headlines:

Al-Akhbar:

Damascus Reassembles the Northern Equations: Aleppo Siege Back Again

Waiting for the Deal: De Facto "Cantons" Drawn in the North

Russia-US Agreement Pending... Till Today?

An-Nahar:

Syria Waits for Obama-Putin Meeting

Today, Syrian Army Besieges Eastern Aleppo

As-Safir:

China warns of "Fading Growth"... G-20 Summit Overwhelmed by Politics

Syrian Army Ends the "Army of Conquest's Adventure"

Europe Nearing Its Limits of Receiving Refugees

"Israeli" Northern Command Bankrupted!

Al-Binaa:

Merkel: Visa for Turks Soon

Al-MUSTAQBAL:

G-20 Summit is Busy Searching for Syrian Agreement

Lebanese newspapers on Monday dealt with a variety of topics regionally and internationally. Here is a couple of extracts on the up-to-the-minute issues.

On Monday September 5, 2016, As-Safir newspaper shed light on the "Army of Conquest's" Crushed Adventure:

Syrian Army Ends the "Army of Conquest's Adventure"

The Syrian Army troops regained control on the Armament Academy in Aleppo thus entirely bridging the gap in the field. This victory coincided with the escalating rows among the armed factions in the eastern districts of Aleppo.

According to as-Safir, the new developments in the south-west front of Aleppo countryside is associated with other developments in the northern parts of the vicinity of Hama.

As armed groups led by the Takfiri Jund al-Sham are trying to breach central Syria, Ankara-backed gunmen under Turkish artillery and air cover, Takfiri Daesh and the Kurdish "Syrian Democratic Forces" [SDF] are battling in the far north of Aleppo countryside are battling, making the field situation more complex.

In this context, a military source believes that what happened in south-western Aleppo is an "adventure" taken by the gunmen where they bundled all their forces in an attempt to shuffle the cards on the one hand, and to break the Syrian Army's operation in the vicinity of Aleppo, on the other hand.

Henceforth, "the armed groups' loss of Castillo in northern Aleppo as well as their failure to retrieve it, forced them to rush the implementation of these attacks in conjunction with the US-Russian negotiations in search of new cards to use in the negotiations game," as-Safir said.

Moving on to Al-Akhbar Newspaper. For Monday's edition, al-Akhbar shed light on the following issues:

Riyadh's Allies Rift Expanding: Clashes between Islah and Pro-Hadi

Al-Akhbar's Rashid Al-Haddad quoted a local source in Taiz who confirmed that violent confrontations had happened last Saturday among coalition-backed "Resistance" factions in the Jamal street downtown Taiz city.

The source said that armed militants loyal to the Military Council's commander Sadiq Sarhan and supporters of Ali Maamari, the governor appointed by ouster President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, had lasted for hours.

Furthermore, sources close to the "Taiz Resistance" said that clashes between the pro-Hadi conservative movements and the armed groups loyal to the Islah Party and pro-Ahmar military leader followed the development of differences in a meeting between Maamari and leaders of a number of armed groups last Friday.

Elsewhere in Aden, the Minister of State in Hadi's government, Hani Bin Braik violently attacked the Islah Party and accused it of "financing and supporting terrorism and backing the vandalizing operations in Aden."

The party officially asked Hadi to dismiss minister Bin Braik.

What is new in the US-Russia negotiations, is Moscow's rejection of Washington's proposal to "disarm" the warring parties within Aleppo; at a time when Russian planes are paving the way for the Syrian Army and its allies to advance and re-impose a siege on Aleppo.

Moscow merely approved the proposal of providing humanitarian aid to the eastern districts of Aleppo via the Castillo road.

Though, the American proposal came along another batch revealed by a letter from Washington's special envoy to Syria, Michael Ratney, which according to Reuters addresses the so-called Syrian armed opposition.

According to the letter, the agreement includes a "cease-fire across the country, which focuses on humanitarian aid to Aleppo", while "Russia is committed to preventing the Syrian government planes from bombing areas under the main opposition control [backed by the US]"; a condition which the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected as it is inconsistent with goals of negotiations.

However, the US secretary came out solo and announce that he does not want to haste getting into any agreement so as not to see it fail again.

Reuters, on the other hand, quoted a senior official in the US State Department as saying that Russia "backed-down" for some of the issues already agreed upon by the both sides, so both parties should complete the talks today, as-Safir said.

Henceforth, it is clear that the US-Russia field dispute is still centered on a fundamental point: the separation of the so-called "moderate" armed groups from the "terrorists".

Obama's Days are Numbered... Assad's Days are Prolonged

Prominent writer Nasser Kandil wrote in al-Binaa, that the Americans' hastiness forced them to resort to an understanding and that resolving their fate was an inevitable choice.

On the one hand, the American's Kurdish backbone had broken apart. On the other hand, it has become clear to the Americans that the Russian whom they thought preferred their partnership, had prepared to walk without their company.

"Turkey has stolen their seat on the train," Kandil wrote.

The political arrangements had always been the most complex, in the eyes of observers, since the opposition organizing a face-saving withdrawal and accepting a settlement under the auspices of the Syrian president was not easy to imagine.

As US Secretary of State John Kerry has succeeded in making the Saudis and their allies in Yemen come under the blows of the Ansarullah in Najran, Jizan and Asir and yet see a settlement with a national unity government possible and acceptable, the developments in Aleppo succeed with the help of Turkey's Ben Ali Yildirim's statements to set a negotiation between the supreme body and Riyadh that backs the opposition.

Accordingly, they came up with a "genius" formula called the pre-transitional phase... the genius solution is to accept the participation of the Syrian president in the pre-transitional phase, and then jump to the transitional phase, cancel it and immediately go to elections.

Obama's days are numbered... and Assad's days are prolonged!

Source: al-Ahed News