Iran could improve its chances of playing a role on the sidelines of Syria peace talks this month by working with Damascus to stop the bombardment of civilians and improve humanitarian access, US officials said on Monday.
"There are ... steps that Iran could take to show the international community that they are serious about playing a positive role," one of the officials said in Brussels.
Another official made clear that the comment on bombardment referred to Syria's biggest city, Aleppo.
However, one US official said Washington still believed it was "less likely than likely" that Iran would play any role at the Jan. 22 peace conference on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, even on the sidelines.
Another official said Iran and the United States had not discussed the matter directly. All the officials declined to be named.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday reiterated U.S. opposition to Iran being a formal member of the so-called "Geneva 2" talks because it does not support the 2012 international agreement on Syria, dubbed "Geneva 1".
Ahmad al-Jarba:
Ahmad al-Jarba was re-elected as the Western-backed Syrian opposition's leader for a second six-month term on Sunday, coalition members said, defeating former Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab.
Jarba, a tribal figure from the eastern province of Hasaka who has connections with Saudi Arabia, beat Hijab by 65 votes to 52, a statement from the coalition said.
Turkish photographer:
Turkey's state-run news agency says a Turkish photographer who had been kidnapped in Syria has been freed.
The Anadolu Agency said Sunday that 43-year-old photographer Bunyamin Aygun has been handed over to a team of Turkish intelligence officials and is on his way back to Turkey.
The photographer, for Turkey's Milliyet newspaper, who recently won awards for his photographs of Syria's civil war, was kidnapped in northern Syria in November by groups believed to be linked to al-Qaeda.
On the field:
Syrian rebel fighters freed at least 50 people Monday held captive by an al-Qaeda-linked faction after clashes between the rival sides spread further in the country's opposition-held areas in the north, activists said.
Tensions against al-Qaeda-linked fighters had been simmering for months, with on-and-off clashes undermining the rebels' fight to topple Assad. Heavy fighting erupted in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib again on Friday after residents there accused ISIL fighters of killing a popular doctor.
An activist group, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, estimated that at least 100 fighters on both sides have been killed since Friday.
A coalition of Islamic brigades began clashing with ISIL forces in Raqqa overnight and the fighting continued Monday, said Rami Abdurrahman, the director of the Observatory. Another activist group, the Local Coordinating Committees, also reported the Raqqa clashes, saying they were focused around a city post office.
The Observatory said rebels surrounded the ISIL's chief compound in Raqqa and liberated at least 50 detainees from a nearby prison. Abdurrahman said they included fighters and activists imprisoned for their criticism of the ISIL.
Abdurrahman estimated that more than 1,000 people being held in ISIL-run prisons in Raqqa province. He said the fate of the Italian priest and foreign journalists was unknown.
Activists said another al-Qaeda-linked rebel group, the Nusra Front, was taking part in the fighting against ISIL in Raqqa, while in other places, the group was said to be trying to mediate a halt to the fighting.
Rebels of the more moderate Syrian Revolutionary Front a recently formed coalition of rebel brigades aligned with the exiled Syrian opposition appeared reluctant to give up their offensive.
In a statement Monday, they demanded ISIL fighters desert the al-Qaida group and join their ranks. They also accused the ISIL of killing at least 400 of their fighters and imprisoning 2,000.
Rebels appear to have taken several ISIL compounds in the northern province of Aleppo. ISIL fighters also handed over strongholds in the town of Tal Rafat to the Nusra Front to avoid clashes, the Observatory reported.
Rebels and ISIL fighters fought in the town of Jarablous near the Syria-Turkey border. ISIL had seized key border crossings from the rebels over the past months.
REUTERS/AP
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