Syria ceasefire heading to moment of truth: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Manuel Ochsenreiter, editor-in-chief of Zuerst in Berlin, about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad assuring his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of Damascus’ readiness to facilitate the establishment of a recently brokered ceasefire in the war-torn Arab country.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Please talk to us more about the ramifications of this ceasefire by what we have learned it excludes all terrorist groups and UN recognized terrorist groups also those groups that refuse to lay down their arms?  

Ochsenreiter: Yes, what we witness now is very decisive moment of truth because we will see now how much power and how much influence the so-called moderate rebel groups really have. We should not forget that this whole image of the so-called moderate rebel groups, which is really blown up in Western media and by Western politicians, will now be shown how it is really in reality.

We know already that the two main groups on the battlefield, the two main terrorist groups on the battlefield including the so-called Islamic State (Daesh) and Jabhat al-Nusra will not participate [in] the ceasefire. They will go on fighting and they will be fought. We know that Saudi- and Turkish-backed rebel groups are trying to negotiate that the al-Nusra front - the Jabhat al-Nusra - which is a part of al-Qaeda would be also included in the truce in terms of that the Syrian army and the allied forces of the Syrian army are not taking the Jabhat al-Nusra.

So we see that these whole negotiations is now bringing or it is now heading to a point of truth where we might know very soon if these so-called moderate rebel groups are really a sort of power on the battlefield or if they are just made up branch for Western media and for Western politicians and I personally seriously doubt that they really play a role. In my opinion the fights will go on, they will go on of course against the Islamic State, which is the most dangerous force on the battlefield but we have also the Turkish influence. So we should not forget that Turkey is a very decisive power when it comes to Syria. So will Turkey be cooperative to the truce, to the ceasefire or will Turkey not apply to this, so these will be all things we might know very soon.

Press TV: And there is also the issue of the Saudi-backed opposition, the so-called High Negotiations Committee, which are still to give a final answer but it seems at this make or break juncture they have very little options as well?

Ochsenreiter: What we can see, I mean the Syrian government by the way since 2011, since the war broke out which is not a civil war, which is a proxy war indeed, the Syrian government never let a doubt any day that they are ready to go into a ceasefire, that they are ready to go into a truce and that they are ready to negotiate with Syrian groups on the battlefield. So if mainstream media announces that Bashar al-Assad is eventually ready to do this, this is not true, the Syrian government always said that.

It was always about the terrorist forces and I refuse to call them rebel forces. I think we should call them what they are. These are terrorist forces with different batches, different types of batches … and there is no difference if you are part of the so-called FSA, the Free Syrian Army or if you are part of the Islamic State, you are doing the same war crimes, you are doing the same mass shootings, mass beheadings, forced conversions of Christians, Shia and Alawi, so all these things are the same but that now rebel groups or terrorist groups are willing to go into negotiations show simply that they are in a very, very bad and dangerous strategic position.

Going to a truce for them means the chance to rescue what they have and Bashar al-Assad was already mentioning the danger of a truce, this means regrouping terrorist forces, so it might give them some time to recover and to regroup, ... these terrorist forces are now willing to go into a negotiation for a ceasefire shows that they are in a very, very bad strategic position.

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