Syria opposition casts doubt on peace talks – 12 children dead after Russia strike hits school

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PARIS, Jan 11, (Agencies): Syria’s opposition co-ordinator Riad Hijab accused Russia of killing dozens of children after a bombing raid on Monday and said such action meant the opposition could not negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad’s government. Earlier the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 12 Syrian school children had been killed when suspected Russian warplanes hit a classroom in the rebel-held town of Injara in Aleppo province. Hijab, speaking after talks with French President Francois Hollande in Paris, put the death toll at 35 children and said the Russian strikes had hit three schools in total.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow, which denies any targeting of civilians in the confl ict. “We want to negotiate, but to do that the conditions have to be there,” Hijab told reporters. “We cannot negotiate with the regime when there are foreign forces bombing the Syrian people.” Hijab is a former prime minister under Assad who defected to the opposition in 2012. He was chosen in December as coordinator of the opposition negotiating body to lead future Syria talks.

Peace talks are scheduled to be held between the government and opposition on Jan 25 under the auspices of the United Nations. However, opposition offi cials have already cast doubt on whether the talks will go ahead on schedule, citing a need to see goodwill measures from the government side. “We do not want to go to negotiations that are condemned to failure before they start. We need to create the right climate,” Hijab said. “How could we negotiate when the Syrian people are dying? Each day there are massacres.” He said the talks had to lead to a transitional government with the president and prime minister’s full executive powers. Hijab said Russia was flaunting UN Security Council resolutions by bombing civilians and urged the world body to ensure Russia respected its humanitarian obligations. He also dismissed Syrian government demands that it see a list of opposition members attending the possible talks, saying the opposition would not have choices imposed on them.

Earlier on Monday French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called on Moscow and Damascus to stop “inadmissible” attacks against civilians. Hollande and Fabius reiterated the Western view that Assad, who has strong backing from Moscow and Tehran, must relinquish power under any peace settlement. “Bashar al-Assad has no role in the Syria of tomorrow,” Hollande said after his talks with Hijab. Fabius said images from Madaya showing people suffering from starvation in the besieged rebel-held town underscored why the Syrian leader should step down. On Monday an aid convoy entered the town where thousands have been trapped

Strike
Meanwhile, at least 12 children and three adults were killed in a Russian air strike that hit a school in Syria’s Aleppo province on Monday, a monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the three adults included a teacher, and that the strike in the town of Anjara also injured at least 20 people, all of them children and teachers.

The monitor said there had been heavy air strikes and clashes between government and rebel forces since Sunday in the northern province, which is controlled by a mixture of moderate and Islamist rebels. Photos distributed by media activists in Aleppo province showed a classroom full of rubble with the wooden tops of desks blown off their metal frames. The Britain-based Observatory also reported that three children were killed by rebel rocket fire on a government-held district in Aleppo city. Control of the city has been divided between government forces in the west and rebel fighters in the east since shortly after fighting began there in mid-2012.

Government forces regularly carry out air raids on the east, while rebels fire rockets into the west. The situation is largely reversed in the countryside surrounding the city, with rebels controlling much of the area west of Aleppo, and the government present to the east. Russia, a staunch ally of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, began air strikes in support of the central government in late September. It says it is targeting the Islamic State group and other “terrorists,” but a third of those killed in its strikes have been civiltheians, according to the Observatory. The monitor said in late December that Russian air strikes had killed more than 2,300 people since they began on Sept 30, among them 792 civilians. Moscow has slammed as “absurd” allegations that its strikes have killed civilians. More than 260,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

An aid convoy entered a besieged Syrian town on Monday where thousands have been trapped without supplies for months and people are reported to have died of starvation. Trucks carrying food and medical supplies reached Madaya near the Lebanese border and began to distribute aid as part of an agreement between warring sides, the United Nations and the Red Cross said. Dozens are said to have died from starvation or lack of medical care in the town and activists say some inhabitants have been reduced to eating leaves. Images said to be of emaciated residents have appeared widely on social media.

At the same time, another convoy began entering two Shi’ite villages, al Foua and Kefraya in the northwestern province of Idlib 300 km (200 miles) away. Rebel fighters in military fatigues and with scarves covering their faces inspected the aid vehicles in the rain before they entered. Madaya is besieged by pro-Syrian government forces, while the two villages in Idlib province are encircled by rebels fighting the Syrian government. Women cried out with relief as the first four trucks, carrying the banner of the Syria Red Crescent crossed into Madaya after sunset, with civilians waiting on the outskirts of the town as the temperature dropped and it began to get dark.

Offloading aid supplies was expected to last through the night, and the full aid operation several days, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. Images said to be from Madaya and showing skeletal men with protruding ribcages were published by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war, while an emaciated baby in a nappy with bulging eyes was shown in other posts. Madaya residents on the outskirts of the town said they wanted to leave. There was widespread hunger and prices of basic foods such as rice had soared, with some people living off water and salt, they said. One opposition activist has said people were eating leaves and plants.

The blockade of Madaya has become a focal issue for Syrian opposition leaders, who told a UN envoy last week they would not take part in talks with the government, slated for later this month, until it and other sieges are lifted. The United Nations said on Thursday the Syrian government had agreed to allow access to Madaya, where UN officials say there have been credible reports of people dying of starvation. Dr Mohammed Yousef, who heads a local medical team in Madaya, said on Monday that 67 people had died either of starvation or lack of medical aid in the last two months, mostly women, children and the elderly.

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