Syrian forces close in on Daesh-held Palmyra

Syrian pro-government forces were poised on Wednesday to launch an assault to retake the ancient city of Palmyra from militants, as Washington sought to inject new momentum into flagging peace talks.

The militant Daesh group overran the city dubbed the “Pearl of the Desert” last May, and it has since blown up Unesco-listed temples and looted relics dating back thousands of years.

Its recapture would be a strategic as well as a symbolic victory for President Bashar al-Assad since whoever controls it also controls the vast desert extending from central Syria to the Iraqi border, experts say.

Loyalists backed by Russian airstrikes were “800 metres from Palmyra” and now control areas linking the city to Damascus and third city Homs, a Syrian security source said.

“The army is now at (the southern and south-western) entrances to the city and is preparing to begin the battle to liberate Palmyra,” the source said.

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said earlier on Wednesday that regime forces were two kilometres south of Palmyra and five kilometres south-west of the city.

In Geneva, meanwhile, negotiators were making a fresh bid for a breakthrough ahead of a planned pause in the peace talks starting on Thursday.

There is some hope that high-level US-Russian meetings this week could deliver the momentum needed to move on to a new round.

With the indirect negotiations in Geneva proving to be sluggish, all eyes are on Moscow since the two powers hold significant sway over the opposing sides in Syria’s devastating conflict.

“The diplomatic process in Geneva is interconnected with what is taking place in Moscow,” said the High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition umbrella group.

The HNC said it hoped that after the Kremlin talks “a clear message will be sent to Bashar al-Assad: He cannot continue to paralyse the political transition that the Syrian people are demanding.

“Syria’s future must be decided by the Syrian people, not by a single man,” said the group, whose leader Riad Hijab — a former prime minister who defected in 2012 — was set to hold a first official meeting with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura.

Assad’s fate has been a key obstacle to the latest talks, with the government stubbornly insisting any discussion of him leaving is “excluded” and the opposition saying any talk of allowing him to stay is “absolutely unacceptable”.

Washington and Moscow were instrumental in bringing about a partial, fragile ceasefire declared on February 27, raising hopes for an end to the five-year Syrian conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes.

The ceasefire does not include areas held by Daesh and Al Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front, allowing the regime to launch an offensive at the start of the month, backed by heavy Russian air strikes, to try to retake Palmyra.

Moscow, which made a surprise announcement last week that it was withdrawing most of its troops from Syria, has continued support for the government’s bid to liberate what President Vladimir Putin described as a “pearl of world civilisation”.

Russia’s military intervention in Syria from September at Assad’s request has already allowed the regime to retake significant territory it had lost to various armed opposition groups.

But experts say Moscow’s partial withdrawal could help the peace drive by weakening Assad’s position.