ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The fourth round of Astana talks aimed at getting Syrian government and opposition factions to negotiate steps toward the end of the six-year-long Syrian civil war were put on hold on Wednesday after the opposition delegation halted the meetings claiming continued breaks of the ceasefire.
"The rebel delegation is suspending the meetings because of the violent air strikes on civilians. The suspension will continue until shelling stops across all Syria," AFP news agency reported an unnamed opposition source in the Kazakh capital Astana as saying.
The UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura is hopeful that the talks will resume on Thursday.
“The Special Envoy, myself, and the UN are urging all in Astana to press ahead tomorrow with de-escalation discussions and confidence-building measures,” Mistura told reporters.
Mistura was asked whether the opposition will return to the table.
“I will wait to see what they will say. I hope they will because what is important is also to look at the possibility of an outcome on de-escalation,” he said.
“Every time we have been having a meeting or a discussion about cessation of hostilities or de-escalation in this case, there have been some incidents produced by one side or the other,” he added.
A car bomb killed at least four people in the rebel-held town of Azaz on Wednesday.
"A booby-trapped car exploded in front of a headquarters for the interim government," Reuters reported a spokesman for the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) Ahmad Ramadan as saying, adding he blamed the attack on ISIS.
The Turkish Anadolu Agency reported one of its correspondents, who was near the scene of the attack, said an explosive-laden vehicle exploded outside Azaz’s Maytam Mosque near an office associated with Syria’s pro-opposition interim government.
Anadolu reported that it was told by a doctor at a local field hospital that four people had been killed by the blast — including one Free Syrian [Army] police officer — and four civilians were injured.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported 116 people were killed in Syria on Monday including civilians, regime and rebel forces.
One SOHR report stated 13 people including five children and four civilian women were killed.
“There was conflict[ing] information about the reasons of the explosion, whether it was caused by explosion of an ammunition dump, or by shelling by the regime forces with a missile believed to be ground to ground,” SOHR wrote.
AFP reported that a source close to the opposition provided the news agency with an Arabic-language version of a proposal drafted by Russia, which an opposition official confirmed to AFP was being discussed on Wednesday.
The draft reportedly included the creation of "de-escalation zones" in rebel-held territory in the northwestern province of Idlib, in parts of Homs province in the center, in the south, and in the opposition enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in the Russian city of Sochi with President Valdimir Putin on Wednesday. After their meeting, they held a press conference.
Erdogan told reporters he hoped "this zone of de-escalation will be accepted,” according to the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News.
AFP added that the draft called for the creation of “security zones,” with checkpoints and monitoring centres to be manned by government troops and rebel fighters.
"As for the flights over de-escalation zones - combat aviation will not be operating there on condition that no military activity is registered in such zones," Russian TASS news reported Putin as saying.
"It was agreed to enhance interaction along these lines between the special services and defense ministries. In particular, inter-departmental consultations on anti-terrorist operations will continue to be held on the regular basis," TASS also reported Putin as saying.
