U.S. and Russia Agree to ‘Regime of Silence’ for Parts of Syria

Russia and the United States have agreed to enforce a “regime of silence” in Latakia and Damascus, according to Russian media reports. The agreement, which will enter force at midnight, will preserve some aspects of the collapsing partial ceasefire in Syria and continue to allow the provision of humanitarian aid in certain areas. The agreement does not seem to cover Aleppo, though, which has seen a particularly bloody week. At least 200 civilians have died in the city over the last week as rebels have shelled government-held neighborhoods and Syrian jets have bombarded rebel districts. That includes a strike this morning that struck a medical clinic in the neighborhood of al-Marjah that had provided dental work and treatment for chronic illnesses. Another strike earlier this week destroyed a clinic operated by Médecins Sans Frontières in Aleppo’s Sukkari neighborhood, killing 30 people.

Kurdish Militias Clash with U.S.-backed Rebels

Clashes in the town of Tal Rifaat between Syrian Kurdish militias and other Syrian rebel groups resulted in the deaths of 53 rebel troops and 11 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Kurdish and Arab groups. Kurdish militia then loaded the bodies of the dead on a flatbed trailer and paraded them through the streets of the nearby city of Afrin. Tensions between Kurdish and Arab rebels have been strained by the renewed fighting in Aleppo, where Kurdish forces accuse rebels of killing civilians in Kurdish neighborhoods. Several prominent Kurds spoke out against the display of rebel bodies.

Headlines

• Iranians are going to the polls today to vote in parliamentary runoff elections; there are 68 seats at stake in the election today from districts where candidates did not break a 25 percent threshold in elections at the end of February.

• Turkey’s first deployment of troops stationed at a new base in Qatar arrived in the country yesterday; the facility will host 3,000 soldiers and have air and naval components.

• The Libyan unity government announced that it would form a new joint military command to coordinate fighting against the Islamic State and instructed all military forces in the country to await instructions from the new structure.

• With peace talks on the Yemeni civil war entering their second week, U.N. Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed hailed the “positive atmosphere” at the talks, but the two parties have reportedly not met directly for negotiations yet.

• Palestinian author Rabai al-Madhoun was awarded the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, also called the “Arabic Booker,” for his novel Destinies: Concerto of the Holocaust and the Nakba, which divides modern Palestinian history into four “movements” like a piece of symphonic music; recipients of the prize receive $50,000 and have their work published in English translation.

Arguments and Analysis

“What Explains the Flow of Foreign Fighters to ISIS?” (Efraim Benmelech, Esteban F. Klor, National Bureau of Economic Research)

“We find that poor economic conditions do not drive participation in ISIS. In contrast, the number of ISIS foreign fighters is positively correlated with a country’s GDP per capita and Human Development Index (HDI). In fact, many foreign fighters originate from countries with high levels of economic development, low income inequality, and highly developed political institutions. Other factors that explain the number of ISIS foreign fighters are the size of a country’s Muslim population and its ethnic homogeneity. Although we cannot directly determine why people join ISIS, our results suggest that the flow of foreign fighters to ISIS is driven not by economic or political conditions but rather by ideology and the difficulty of assimilation into homogeneous Western countries.”

“Putting Your Life in a Dinghy” (Ayman Jalwan, SyriaSource)

“We have only a half hour to prepare for the crossing, and this 30 minutes feels like a much longer time, like three or four hours. After this half hour, they say: now, get in the boat. And I say, ok—and you? The man with us said, no, I will not steer this boat. I say, so who will steer it? He says, someone from your group — I will teach him. I told him, ‘What?!’ He said, you can’t expect me to go to Greece — I have a job here. This is the way it works here. It’s easy, you just follow the instructions I give you. And, he said, and whoever drives the boat, I will not take any money from him. That person goes for free. He said to me, do you want to drive? I said, no, of course not! I will not take responsibility for transporting these people across the water! I don’t know how to drive a boat! They don’t tell you about this in Izmir. They wait until the time just before you are ready to go, right there on the beach.”

-J. Dana Stuster

AMEER ALHALBI/AFP/Getty Images