The Syrian opposition delegation attending peace talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana, has rejected a plan for the Iranian regime to play a role in monitoring the ceasefire in Syria, Britain’s Guardian reported on Monday.
Mohammed Alloush, the head of the opposition delegation, said in his opening remarks that the presence of Iranian-sponsored militias alongside regular Syrian government troops made peace more difficult to achieve, and called for them to leave the country, according to the Guardian.
He also called for the release of prisoners from government jails, saying 13,000 women were being held arbitrarily.
Alloush insisted the political process would begin with the departure of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, Iran’s regime, and their militias.
The Syrian opposition believes militia linked to Iran’s regime, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, are – along with the al-Assad regime – systematically breaching the ceasefire agreed on December 29, 2016. The Syrian fighters believe the Iranian regime, as perpetrators of innumerable ceasefire breaches, cannot credibly monitor or enforce a ceasefire.
Alloush said the rebels were prepared to keep fighting if no deal was possible, and while a political solution to the civil war was the rebels’ preferred choice, it was not the only one.
“We came here to reinforce the ceasefire as the first phase of this process,” he said. “We will not proceed to the next phases until this actually happens on the ground.” He described the Syrian government as a “terrorist entity”.
The National Council of Resistance in December 2016 revealed detailed information regarding the role of the Iranian regime and its proxies in the carnage perpetrated in the city of Aleppo.