Putin says Syrian army honouring truce, rebels ‘regrouping’

Moscow, Sep 17 (AFP) Russian President Vladimir Putintoday said Moscow is holding to its part of the Syriaagreement, but accused the rebels of using it to "regroup" andcalled for more transparency from Washington. "We see attempts to regroup among these terrorists, toswitch one label for another, one name for another and keeptheir military capacity," he said in televised remarks whileon a trip to Kyrgyzstan. "This is what we are seeing and that is sad," he added,saying Washington is facing a "rather difficult problem… toseparate the opposition (to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad)from terrorists." He said Washington apparently "has the desire to keep thecapabilities to fight the lawful government of PresidentAssad," calling it a "very dangerous path." "I would like us to be honest with one another and that ishow we can move toward our mutual goals (to fight terrorismand achieve peace in Syria)," he said. "I don’t really understand why we have to hide anyagreements, but we will of course refrain from revealing anydetails until our American partners agree to this," he said. Russia accused the United States of refusing to sharedetails of the closed-door agreement on Syria with the UNSecurity Council yesterday, which had to cancel its urgentmeeting that was supposed to endorse the deal. "They don’t want to make it public because the worldcommunity… will understand who is really not abiding towhat," Putin said of the deal, in reference to "regrouping"rebels. Putin said he remained "positive rather than negative" onthe deal, which has also been tested by air strikes andclashes amid accusations that Bashar al-Assad’s forces areblocking aid from reaching the ravaged central city of Aleppo. The Russian president insisted Moscow is adhering to itspart of the agreement. "As for Russia, it is fully honouring its obligations," hesaid, adding Moscow reached relevant agreements with regimeforces. "We have reached agreements with the president (of Syria),with the government of Syria. As we see, Syrian forces arefully abiding by these agreements." (AFP)ABH