Safe passage to ISIS militants’ families

Syria ready for Geneva peace talks ‘without foreign intervention’, sets preconditions for Opp.

Hundreds of families of Islamic State (ISIS) militants and some injured fighters are expected to leave rebel-held areas of southern Damascus under a UN-brokered deal, a monitoring group said on Thursday.

Safe passage would be given from the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk on the outskirts of Damascus and neighbouring Hajar al Aswad, said Rami Abdulraham, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The families and some fighters will be taken to Raqqa in northern Syria, the stronghold of the militant Sunni Islamist group, and other ISIS-controlled areas over several months, eventually ending the group’s presence near the capital.

The ISIS has had a significant foothold in Hajar al Aswad, just a few kilometers from President Bashar al Assad’s seat of power.

Syrian minister for national reconciliation Ali Haidar said efforts were under way to get militants out of the Yarmouk camp but gave no details.

Several local ceasefires and safe-passage agreements have been concluded elsewhere in Syria recently. One, brokered with support from Iran and Turkey, halted fighting in the town of Zabadani on the Lebanese border, and in two villages in the northwest.

A deal was also reached in the last rebel-held district of the Syrian city of Homs that allowed rebels and their families to leave the besieged area. The UN said the agreement could help pave the way for a nationwide truce.

Meanwhile, Syria’s regime said Thursday it was ready to take part in new talks in Geneva aimed at ending the war but appeared to make its participation conditional on which Opposition groups will attend.

During an official visit to China on Thursday, foreign minister Walid Muallem said Damascus “is ready to participate in the Syrian-Syrian dialogue in Geneva without any foreign interference”.

Last week, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution endorsing a peace plan to bring the regime and opposition together for talks in January.

The plan is the result of nearly two months of strenuous efforts between top diplomats from 17 countries, including regime backers Russia and Iran.

But it does not address the sharpest difference between Opposition groups and the regime: the fate of President Assad.