Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Takes Over Idlib After Ceasefire Deal

The militant-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, whose fighters are seen here during an exercise on August 14, 2018, have taken control of the whole of Syria's last major rebel bastion Idlib under a ceasefire deal with rival Turkish-backed rebels | AFP
The militant-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, whose fighters are seen here during an exercise on August 14, 2018, have taken control of the whole of Syria's last major rebel bastion Idlib under a ceasefire deal with rival Turkish-backed rebels | AFP
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Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Takes Over Idlib After Ceasefire Deal

The militant-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, whose fighters are seen here during an exercise on August 14, 2018, have taken control of the whole of Syria's last major rebel bastion Idlib under a ceasefire deal with rival Turkish-backed rebels | AFP
The militant-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, whose fighters are seen here during an exercise on August 14, 2018, have taken control of the whole of Syria's last major rebel bastion Idlib under a ceasefire deal with rival Turkish-backed rebels | AFP

A militant group dominated by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate Thursday sealed its grip on northern Idlib, the last major rebel bastion, in a deal ending days of fighting with rival factions.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) signed a ceasefire with what was left of a rival alliance that sees it confirm its supremacy and unites the region under a jihadist-led administration.

Under an accord reached by rebel backer Turkey and regime ally Russia in September, Ankara was expected to rein in Idlib factions to stave off a threatened regime offensive with potentially disastrous humanitarian repercussions.

The militants' deal, a copy of which was circulated on local media outlets, brings an immediate end to the fighting between HTS and the rival National Liberation Front, which was directly backed by Turkey.

"This morning, HTS and NLF signed an agreement to put an end to ongoing fighting... and establish the control of the salvation government in all areas," the group's propaganda channel Ebaa said.

The self-proclaimed Salvation Government is an HTS-dominated body which had been administering large parts of the Idlib area, including its eponymous capital.

Its reach now extends to most of the Idlib province and parts of the neighboring provinces of Aleppo and Hama.

The deal sees Ankara-backed radical factions Ahrar al-Sham and Suqur al-Sham stand down, as areas they once held come under HTS administrative control.

These include the two major towns of Ariha and Maarat al-Noman.

Last week, HTS seized dozens of villages from another key NLF component, Noureddine al-Zinki, in the northeast of the enclave.

Other militants-- such as the Al-Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Deen group and Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) -- maintain a presence in the Idlib region but are allied with HTS.

The clashes between HTS and its NLF rivals in Idlib had killed 137 people on both sides since the start of the year, most of them fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

The deal announced on Thursday provides for an immediate cessation of hostilities, an exchange of detainees, the lifting of all checkpoints inside the region, and its unification under the authority of the Salvation Government.

Analyst Sam Heller said the latest development put HTS squarely in control of the Idlib region.

"Now it can present itself to Turkey and others as an indispensable interlocutor in any non-military solution to Idlib," said the analyst with the International Crisis Group.

It was however unclear if it would make it harder for Turkey to implement the September deal for a buffer zone around Idlib, reached in the Russian resort town of Sochi.

"It's not clear whether the Sochi deal's success and the continuation of the Idlib de-escalation actually depends on the memorandum's literal implementation, or more political atmospherics such as the health of the Turkish-Russian bilateral relationship," he said.

Simultaneously, Ankara has been threatening to launch a cross-border offensive against the Kurdish militia controlling large parts of northeastern Syria.

The recent announcement by US President Donald Trump that he was ordering a full troop pullout from Syria has left Washington's Kurdish allies more exposed than ever.

They have had to cozy up to Damascus, at the expense of their plans for increased autonomy, to guarantee their survival in the face of Turkish threats.

Turkey, which considers the Kurdish YPG militia a terrorist organization, could move into northern Syria to create a buffer along its border.

It made its intentions clear Thursday and warned that it would launch an offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces if the United States delays the withdrawal of its troops from the war-torn country.

"If the (pullout) is put off with ridiculous excuses like Turks are massacring Kurds, which do not reflect the reality, we will implement this decision," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told NTV television.

Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

The Russia-backed regime notched up a series of victories against the rebels and extremists last year, and is now in control of around two-thirds of the country.



Cash Crunch Leaves Syrians Queueing for Hours to Collect Salaries

Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
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Cash Crunch Leaves Syrians Queueing for Hours to Collect Salaries

Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP

Seated on the pavement outside a bank in central Damascus, Abu Fares's face is worn with exhaustion as he waits to collect a small portion of his pension.
"I've been here for four hours and I haven't so much as touched my pension," said the 77-year-old, who did not wish to give his full name.

"The cash dispensers are under-stocked and the queues are long," he continued.

Since the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad last December, Syria has been struggling to emerge from the wake of nearly 14 years of civil war, and its banking sector is no exception.

Decades of punishing sanctions imposed on the Assad dynasty -- which the new authorities are seeking to have lifted -- have left about 90 percent of Syrians under the poverty line, according to the United Nations.

The liquidity crisis has forced authorities to drastically limit cash withdrawals, leaving much of the population struggling to make ends meet.

Prior to his ousting, Assad's key ally Russia held a monopoly on printing banknotes. The new authorities have only announced once that they have received a shipment of banknotes from Moscow since Assad's overthrow.
In a country with about 1.25 million public sector employees, civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs to make withdrawals, capped at about 200,000 Syrian pounds, the equivalent on the black market of $20 per day.

In some cases, they have to take a day off just to wait for the cash.

"There are sick people, elderly... we can't continue like this," said Abu Fares.

'Meagre sums'
"There is a clear lack of cash, and for that reason we deactivate the ATMs at the end of the workday," an employee at a private bank told AFP, preferring not to give her name.

A haphazard queue of about 300 people stretches outside the Commercial Bank of Syria. Some are sitting on the ground.

Afraa Jumaa, a civil servant, said she spends most of the money she withdraws on the travel fare to get to and from the bank.

"The conditions are difficult and we need to withdraw our salaries as quickly as possible," said the 43-year-old.
"It's not acceptable that we have to spend days to withdraw meagre sums."

The local currency has plunged in value since the civil war erupted in 2011, prior to which the dollar was valued at 50 pounds.

Economist Georges Khouzam explained that foreign exchange vendors -- whose work was outlawed under Assad -- "deliberately reduced cash flows in Syrian pounds to provoke rapid fluctuations in the market and turn a profit".

Muntaha Abbas, a 37-year-old civil servant, had to return three times to withdraw her entire salary of 500,000 pounds.

"There are a lot of ATMs in Damascus, but very few of them work," she said.

After a five-hour wait, she was finally able to withdraw 200,000 pounds.

"Queues and more queues... our lives have become a series of queues," she lamented.