[An Nahar] Russia said Friday it was concerned over the refusal of fighters from a former al-Qaeda affiliate, the Fateh al-Sham...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant...
Front, to leave Aleppo as Russian and Syrian forces have halted fighting.
The combatants, formerly known as al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
, and the some 250,000 civilians in rebel-held areas, have largely avoided the eight escape corridors announced this week by Russia and Syria's regime.
"We are highly concerned at the fact that, despite the goodwill gestures of Moscow and Damascus with the aim of normalising the situation in Aleppo, we see that al-Nusra fighters are refusing to leave the city," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Kremlin front man Dmitry Peskov told journalists Friday that whether Russia extends the pause in fighting further "depends on how the process of fighters leaving the city -- which so far is sluggish, unfortunately."
Asked whether the decision on extending the pause would be taken daily, he said it would be made on the basis of the current situation, since "the situation is changing quite quickly, it could change for the worse."
At a briefing in Moscow, Lavrov accused fighters from the Fateh al-Sham Front and influential Islamist Ahrar al-Sham
...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014...
group of "sabotaging the efforts of the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
-- with our support, with support of the Syrian government -- to get humanitarian aid
supplies into east Aleppo."He said the fighters "with threats, blackmail and brute force, are obstructing the departure of peaceful civilians from east Aleppo", as well as that of combatants who are prepared to leave.
Russia is "ready to extend this humanitarian pause" as long as there are not "provocations" by al-Nusra and allied groups, Lavrov said, adding that "this position was confirmed in our contacts with the United States."
Lavrov also said Russia is "very concerned" at Turkish strikes on US-backed militias in northern Syria, including Syrian Kurdish fighters.
He said Russia expected the United States, leading a coalition that includes
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, to "stay within the framework of the declared aim" of fighting Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
jihadists and the Fateh al-Sham Front.