Syria opposition negotiator urges attacks on Assad forces despite truce
Mohammed Alloush called for Syrian opposition fighters to 'strike at the necks' of President Bashar al-Assad's forces
Chief negotiator for the main Syrian opposition umbrella group the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), Army of Islam rebel group's Mohammed Alloush (AFP)
Published date: 17 April 2016 14:19 BST
|
Last update: 8 years 7 months ago
The Syrian opposition's chief negotiator on Sunday called for renewed attacks on Syrian government forces, despite the shaky truce deal between government troops and rebel fighters.
Mohammed Alloush, a leading political figure in the Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) rebel group, is in Geneva as the senior negotiator of the High Negotiations Committee.
A fellow opposition figure said Alloush's hawkish statement did not represent the HNC's position.
"Don't trust the regime and don't wait for their pity," Alloush wrote on Twitter.
"Strike them at their necks [kill them]. Strike them everywhere," he said, reciting a passage from the Koran dealing with war.
Alloush's Jaish al-Islam is party to the fragile ceasefire deal between Syria's government and rebel groups.
Brokered by the US and Russia, the truce had seen violence drop across parts of Syria since it came into force on 27 February.
But a recent surge of fighting in the northern province of Aleppo has threatened to collapse the deal and derail the peace talks in Switzerland.
On Sunday government jets carried out air strikes in Aleppo province that killed at least 11 civilians, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
Jaish al-Islam is the most powerful rebel group in the Eastern Ghouta opposition bastion outside Damascus.
Alloush himself was relatively unknown before joining the HNC because he had spent much of his life in Saudi Arabia pursuing Islamic religious studies.
"Alloush's position is personal. We as the HNC cannot adopt this position," said Yahya al-Aridi, a member of the broader consultative delegation in Geneva, when asked about Alloush's statement.
More than 270,000 people have been killed and millions more have been displaced since Syria's conflict erupted in 2011.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
