Section:GDN BE PaGe:1 Edition Date:161230 Edition:01 Zone:S Sent at 29/12/2016 21:09 cYanmaGentaYellowblack12A

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Russia brokers Syria ceasefi re as US sidelinedPutin and Erdoğan secure backing of rebels and regime to suspend fi ghting Shaun Walker Moscow Kareem Shaheen IstanbulThe Syrian regime and the opposition have agreed to a nationwide ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Russia, a pact that could mark a turning point in the six-year war and usher in peace talks aimed at bringing an end to a confl ict that has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the population.

The deal, which was due to come into force at midnight last night, is the third ceasefi re agreement this year, and there was confusion over which rebel groups have signed up ; but offi cials from all sides said they hoped this time the pact would hold in the runup to talks in Kazakhstan next month that could lay down a path for a lasting peace.

“We consider the ceasefi re an impor-tant step to resolve the Syrian confl ict,” said Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “Along with the Russian Federation, we support this arrangement as a guarantor.”

Notably absent from the brokering of the deal was the United States, which has been sidelined in recent months as Moscow has stepped up its military and diplomatic involvement in Syria.

Rebel groups, including the powerful Ahrar al-Sham Islamist movement and Jaysh al-Islam, which mostly operates near Damascus, signed up to the agree-ment after negotiations in Ankara. The Syrian military said it would cease com-bat operations, except against terrorist groups including Islamic State and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS), the former al-Qaida wing in Syria that has publicly severed ties with the global network.

“We have just received news that a few hours ago the event we have all been waiting for and working towards has hap-pened,” the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said during a televised meeting

with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lav-rov, and defence minister, Sergei Shoigu.

Putin said three documents had been signed: a ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government and the armed opposition; a list of control mechanisms to ensure that the ceasefi re would hold; and a statement of intent to begin nego-tiations on a political end to the confl ict. Putin described the ceasefi re as fragile and said it would “require a lot of attention”.

The deal comes in the wake of a series of signifi cant losses for the opposition and a shift in the war’s momentum in favour of the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The rebels recently lost control of half of the city of Aleppo after weeks of sustained attack. They have also come under bombardment in the province of Idlib and in the coun-tryside near Damascus. Elsewhere, they have made no signifi cant gains for much of the past year, their fi repower blunted by Russia’s relentless air campaign.

The deal may yet founder as others have in the past year over the compet-ing interests struggling for dominance in Syria. The regime and Iran may decide not to honour the agreement, seeking to capitalise on their recent victories to crush the rebellion.

JFS, formerly al-Nusra Front, has also acted as a spoiler in previous agreements, including the Aleppo evacuation, and has entrenched itself among the Islamist rebels who have signed up to the pact.

The talks in Astana in Kazakhstan next month are set to include Russia, Turkey and Iran, whose top diplomats met earlier this month in an eff ort to kickstart peace talks, as well as representatives from the regime and the opposition.

The absence of the U S from the nego-tiations offers a hint at the frustration over American policies on Syria, both in Russia, a key backer of Bashar al-Assad,

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‘Life became unmanageable’ MichelleWilliamson love and death

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Lauren Gambino Sabrina Siddiqui WashingtonShaun Walker MoscowBarack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplo-mats yesterday as punishment for alleged eff orts to interfere in the presidential elec-tion and announced a range of sanctions that included the closure of two Russian compounds based the US.

Obama said Americans should “be alarmed by Russia’s actions” and pledged further measures. The announcement comes weeks after the president said he would respond to cyber-attacks by Mos-cow “at a time and place of our choosing”.

US intelligences services believe that Russia ordered the cyber-attack on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) ,

Hillary Clinton’s campaign and other political organisations.

“I have issued an executive order that provides additional authority for respond-ing to certain cyber-activity that seeks to interfere with or undermine our election processes and institutions, or those of our allies or partners,” Obama said.

“Using this new authority, I have sanc-tioned nine entities and individuals: the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelli-

gence services; four individual offi cers of the GRU; and three companies that pro-vided material support to the GRU’s cyber operations... We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicised.”

Russian offi cials have said on a number of occasions that they would respond to further US sanctions with measures of their own. Diplomatic expulsions are nor-mally met with an exact reciprocal action from Moscow.

However, it is possible that Russia may pause for thought in this case, because Donald Trump, who has spoken posi-tively about the country and its President

Obama expels Russians over cyber-attacks

Barack Obama said: ‘We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicised’