WORLD
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Syrian safe zones go into effect
By SARAH EL DEEB
and LYNN BERRY
Associated Press
BEIRUT — A deal
hammered out by Russia,
Turkey and Iran to set up
“de-escalation zones” in
mostly opposition-held parts
of Syria went into effect in the
early hours of Saturday.
The plan is the latest
international attempt to reduce
violence in the war-ravaged
country, and is the first to
envisage armed foreign
monitors on the ground in
Syria. The United States is not
party to the agreement and the
Syrian rivals have not signed
on to the deal. The armed
opposition, instead, was
highly critical of the proposal,
saying it lacks legitimacy.
The plan, details of which
will still be worked out over
the next several weeks, went
into effect at midnight Friday.
There were limited reports of
bombing in northern Homs
and Hama, two areas expected
to be part of the “de-escalation
zones,” activists said. There
were no immediate reports of
casualties.
It is not clear how the cease-
fire or “de-escalation zones”
will be enforced in areas still
to be determined in maps to
emerge a month from now.
Russian officials said it will
be at least another month until
the details are worked out and
AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin
Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian General Staff,
speaks to the media in the Defense Ministry in Mos-
cow, Russia, Friday.
the safe areas established.
In the tangled mess that
constitutes Syria’s battlefields,
there is much that can go
wrong with the plan, agreed
on in talks Thursday in
Kazakhstan.
There is no clear mecha-
nism to resolve conflict and
violations— like most other
previous deals struck by
backers of the warring sides.
A potential complication to
implementing the plan is the
crowded airspace over Syria.
The deal calls for all aircraft
to be banned from flying over
the safe zones.
Syrian, Russian, Turkish
and U.S.-led coalition aircraft
operate in different, some-
times same areas in Syria. It is
not yet clear how the new plan
would affect flightpaths of
U.S.-led coalition warplanes
battling Islamic State militants
and other radical groups —
and whether the American
air force would abide by a
diminished air space.
Russia and Iran — two
of the plan’s three sponsors
— are key allies of President
Bashar Assad’s government
and both are viewed as foreign
occupation forces by his
opponents. Rebels fighting
to topple Assad are enraged
by Iran’s role in the deal and
blame the Shiite power for
fueling the sectarian nature
of Syria’s conflict, now in its
seventh year.
Turkey, the third sponsor,
is a major backer of opposi-
tion factions and has also sent
troops into northern Syria,
drawing the ire of Assad and
his government.
Yet troops from the three
countries are now expected
to secure four safe zones. An
official with Russia’s military
general staff said other coun-
tries may eventually have a
role in enforcing the de-esca-
lation areas.
Russian Col.-Gen. Sergei
Rudskoi told reporters on
Friday personnel and forma-
tions from Russia, Iran and
Turkey will operate check-
points and observation posts.
He said “security belts” will
be created along the borders of
the “de-escalation zones” to
prevent incidents and fighting
between opposing sides. The
checkpoints and observation
posts will ensure free move-
ment of unarmed civilians
and humanitarian aid and will
facilitate economic activities,
he said.
Rebels have expressed
concerns the deal is a prelude
to a de facto partitioning of
Syria into spheres of influence.
Osama Abo Zayd, a
spokesman for the Syrian
military factions at the
Kazakhstan talks, told The
Associated Press it was
“incomprehensible” for Iran
to act as a guarantor of the
deal. A cease-fire is unsus-
tainable in the presence of
the Iranian-backed militias in
Syria, he said.
East Oregonian
Page 9A
Online leak rattles
French campaign
By RAPHAEL SATTER
AP Cybersecurity Writer
PARIS — Many feared
this was coming.
For months pundits
and journalists worried
over the possibility that
a strategically timed leak
could destabilize France’s
election, a replay of the
obsessively covered disclo-
sures that some Americans
blame for scuppering
Democratic
presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton’s
campaign and many others
fear are sapping popular
faith in Western democracy.
Late Friday, with only
minutes left before France’s
presidential campaign duel
was due to cease fire for the
weekend, it came.
Well, maybe it did. Or
not. It’s hard to tell with so
little time to evaluate the
mass of material suddenly
leaked online. And that
might be the point.
All that can be said
with much certainty is that
shortly before midnight
French time, someone on
4chan — a message board
known for, among other
things, elaborate hoaxes
and political extremism
— posted links to a large
set of data purportedly
taken from the campaign
of Emmanuel Macron, the
youthful centrist politician
who is tipped to beat
far-right politician Marine
Le Pen in the second
round of the French pres-
idential election Sunday.
Macron’s campaign swiftly
confirmed that several
officials had had their email
inboxes pillaged and that at
least some of the messages,
financial data, and book
keeping published to the
internet was genuine.
The timing of the leak
could be seen either as
idiotic or inspired.
The documents’ release
just before France enters a
roughly two-daylong media
blackout — during which
politicians, journalists and
even ordinary citizens are
legally required to pull
back from any public elec-
tion talk — means that the
leak may have very little
impact beyond the over-
heated world of Twitter and
Reddit. On the other hand,
the publication just before
France’s media-political
machinery shuts down for
the weekend might mean
that talk of the leak —
regardless of its veracity —
will dominate dinner table
conversations as French
voters make up their minds
Saturday.
NATIONAL
NURSES DAY
May 6, 2017
A very special thanks for the hard
work and dedication of the nurses
at St. Anthony Hospital
National Nurses Day is celebrated annually on May 6th to raise
awareness of the important role nurses play in the community.
It marks the beginning of National Nurses Week which ends
on May 12th, the birthday of Florence Nightingale.
2801 St. Anthony Way
Pendleton, OR 97801
541.276.5121