U.S.-backed rebels agreed to a cease-fire in Aleppo hours after reports that the Syrian military, backed by Russia, was in the final stages of recapturing the city.
“Yasser al-Youssef, a spokesman for the Nour el-Din el-Zinki rebel group, confirmed the cease-fire and says the goal is to evacuate civilians and rebels from besieged areas,” according to the Associated Press.
The retaking of Aleppo is a major victory for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, depriving U.S.-backed rebels and anti-Assad jihadists of their most important city and driving a geographic wedge between the remaining rebel-held regions. It puts Assad, with the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, well on his way to securing his regime despite President Obama’s call for his resignation five years ago.
Secretary of State John Kerry has negotiated for months with the Russians, trying to broker a cease-fire that would provide relief to the rebels, but those efforts failed as pro-regime forces continued their bombardment of the rebels and hospitals in the region. “As soon as Bashar Assad has taken all of Aleppo, of course he will agree to a cease-fire and humanitarian aid coming in,” Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain said last week.
That prediction appears to have come to pass. Syrian military leadership predicted Monday that the battle for Aleppo would “end quickly” and reports came Tuesday morning that Assad’s forces were retaking the final rebel neighborhoods.
“I can’t see what is happening in [the] street, but I hear bombs approaching,” Salah Ashkar, a 28-year-old man in Aleppo, told USA Today in a phone call. “Ashkar, who has been posting videos of the carnage, said Syrian troops were executing civilians on the streets, including women and children.”
The Obama administration argues that Assad, by virtue of the violence committed over the last several years of civil war, will be unable to solidify control over Syria despite the fall of Aleppo.
“This war cannot end without a political solution,” Kerry said in October. “So even if Aleppo were to fall, even if they have utterly destroyed it, which they are doing, that will not change the fundamental equation in this war because other countries will continue to support opposition, and they will continue to create more terrorists, and Syria will be the victim in the end as well as the region.”
McCain disagrees. “No one believes that once [Assad] regains Aleppo, that the moderate forces have a real chance of overthrowing Bashar Assad,” he told the Washington Examiner.
