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Turkey, Russia and Iran have agreed to set up a process to help enforce a partial ceasefire in Syria.

Negotiators for the three sides met for two days of talks with Syrian government and rebel representatives in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

The three also agreed to support efforts to find a political solution to the Syrian civil war.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Wednesday that the meetings were, in his words, a serious diplomatic success.

Yildirim said that any resolution of the conflict should involve a new Syrian government that represents all factions.

A major point of disagreement in earlier talks has been the influence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in any new government. Turkey supports the Syrian rebels. They want Assad to leave power. But Assads supporters, including Russia, want him to remain as president.

A statement released at the end of the talks said the Syrian government and opposition should meet next month in Geneva, Switzerland.

After the talks in Astana, opposition groups expressed concern about the plan developed by Turkey, Russia and Iran to ensure all sides obey the ceasefire.

Mohammad Alloush (center), the head of the Syrian opposition delegation, attends Syria peace talks in Astana.

Issam Alrayyes represents the Free Syrian Armys Southern Front. He said his group has always expressed concern about promises made by foreign governments. He added, We hope this time that Russia is taking a different role.

The leader of the Syrian opposition delegation, Muhammad Alloush, said he gave Russia a detailed proposal for a peace deal. He said he expects an answer within a week.

Syrian government and opposition did not talk directly

The Syrian government, Russia and Iran all welcomed the trilateral plan. However, the government said its forces would push forward with an offensive against rebels close to Damascus. Syrian officials said the military is fighting terrorist groups allied with al Qaida.

The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari, also was the governments negotiator at the Astana talks. He said all sides had agreed on the final declaration.

However, any major agreement remains unlikely because the Syrian rebel delegation refused to talk directly to the government. Also, some rebel groups were not invited to the talks because of their links to Jihadist groups.

The U.N.s special diplomat for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said there are many groups, including extremists, fighting in Syria. Making progress between the government and rebels, he said, is difficult.

Russia, Iran and Turkey negotiated the current ceasefire in Syria in late December. However, the Syrian government and rebels have repeatedly broken the truce, which does not cover the whole country.

The talks in Astana were the first negotiations organized by Iran, Russia and Turkey. Some observers are concerned the peace effort may overtake Syrian negotiations that have taken place in Geneva.

However, Syrian expert Noah Bonsey says the new negotiations are more likely, in his words, something in-between. Bonsey is with the International Crisis Group. He said the Astana talks offer something different from the Geneva peace talks, but also provide new energy to negotiations there.

The rebel groups in Astana said they will not attend the next meeting in Geneva if the current ceasefire fails. The next meeting is expected to take place on February 8.

Syrian opposition representatives met in Kazakhstan in 2015. U.N. diplomats organized peace talks involving other nations including the United States. They resulted in earlier, unsuccessful ceasefires.

Russia and Turkey invited the U.S. government to the Astana talks. But the State Department said new President Donald Trump was setting up his administration. The U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan did attend the talks as an observer.

Im Mario Ritter.

Daniel Schearf and Chris Hannas reported this story for VOANews.com. Mario Ritter adapted their report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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faction n. group that has different ideas or opinions that those of the larger group of which it is a part

role n. the part someone plays in a situation or system

jihadist adj. describing someone or something linked to religious war mainly against non-Muslims

trilateral adj. involving three people or groups

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Turkey, Russia and Iran Hold Syrian Peace Talks - Voice of America

Officially in office for less than a week, US President Donald Trump keeps using executive orders to dismantle or overturn policies put in place by his predecessor Barack Obama.

Yet what Trump once considered his No. 1 priority on his to-undo-list, the Iran nuclear agreement, seems to be more difficult to scrap than the self-declared uber-dealmaker initially thought.

Fresh evidence of this reality is expected to arrive at the White House on Friday, when British Prime Minister Theresa May will be the carrier of an important message: The Iran nuclear deal is here to stay!

Previewing Mays trip to Washington, her spokesperson said that she will stress the British strong support for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, concluded between Tehran and six world powers.

During the campaign, candidate Trump called the Islamic Republic the worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism, a threat across the Middle East, and a country that has covert cells ready to inflict carnage around the globe.

Allowing Iran access to billions of dollars in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, Trump argued, was not in Americas or the worlds interests.

But during their Senate confirmation hearings Trumps own national security cabinet picks acknowledged the diplomatic reality and avoided the term re-negotiation altogether.

Signs that there is no appetite for a new round of grueling negotiations are not only coming from London, but also from Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing and Tehran, the other signatories of the agreement.

The other P5+1 are not going to support an effort to re-negotiate a deal, if they think its just a clever way to destroy it, says Gary Samore, Executive Director for Research at Harvard Universitys Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Even if Trump were to engage Iran in new bilateral negotiations given the unlikelihood of multilateral talks, he would need to offer more sanctions relief to lure Tehran back to the table. Yet, Trumps natural instincts will be to pressure and threaten Iran with new sanctions, Samore says.

Probably Trumps best option, likely to be favored by Washingtons foreign policy establishment, would be to abide by the nuclear deal and to focus instead on other non-nuclear threats from Iran in the region, Samore says.

Likely topics could be Irans non-nuclear armament, Tehrans support of various violent extremist groups in the region and its role in destabilising regional governments. But will Trump follow such a path?

In Tehran, the biggest concerns are Trumps general unpredictability, the Iranophobia of his cabinet appointees, and that pressure from Congress could derail the deal, writes Arthur MacMillan in Foreign Policy.

The Iranian government isnt sanguine about Trump, and both supreme leader Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani have become increasingly bellicose about the United States since November.

The reason is that there remains a way Trump could single-handedly renege on the agreement by simply allowing waivers of past sanctions to lapse. That would derail the deal at least on the American side, but it is unclear whether it would have Trumps desired general effect, given that the Europeans, Russians and Chinese have no intention of re-instating sanctions.

Trump, a newcomer to international diplomacy, should recognise the new global strategic reality involving Iran, says Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian-American Council. In its quest for formulating a viable Middle East strategy, the US needs to look eastward and rethink American interests.

Instead of being bogged down in endless conflicts by questionable allies who only want the US to fight their wars, maintaining the Iran deal would allow the United States to gain more maneuverability and become less dependent on traditional allies from Israel to Saudi Arabia to the Gulf states, Parsi says.

So far, Trump has given no hint of what his Middle East policy would look like. But his America first mantra may lead his administration to re-assess future involvements in that troubled region as well.

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Why the Iran nuclear deal will likely survive President Trump - euronews

If mainstream media truly wishes to repair itsimage with the general public, these outlets must recognize they do not merely suffer from a "bubble" reinforced by overwhelmingly liberal staffing, or from supposedly insufficient outreach to working class communities.

The mainstream's issues are apparentin their content choices, suggesting an intractableproblem. Following decades of allowing the Democratic Party to select the day'snarrative, they possess no measure of professional competence for objectively judging the importance of information.

The media's remarkablydifferent responses to the following two stories offer a definitive example:

2. Per the Washington Free Beacon: "Two high-level Iranian government backers, including a former Islamic Republic official and another accused of lobbying on Tehrans behalf, were hosted at the Obama White House for more than 30 meetings with top officials atkey junctures in the former administrations contested diplomacy with Iran ...

"Sources familiar with the nature of the meetings told the Washington Free Beacon that both Parsi and Mousavian helped the White House craft its pro-Iran messaging and talking points that helped lead to the nuclear agreement with Iran. These efforts were part of a larger pro-Iran deal 'echo chamber' led by senior Obama administration officials who were tasked with misleading Congress about the nature of the deal ..."

Just about every mainstream outlet has covered the Michael Flynn story with multiplearticles: Newsweek, CNN, Daily Beast, CBS News, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and others -- a thorough search returnsdozens of high-profile sources that publishedhighly trafficked pieces.

Several pundits demanded answers, pointing to the calls as further evidence of Donald Trump having aligned himself with Vladimir Putin's dictatorial regime, and having allowed Putin to direct elements of his campaign and his coming presidency. Later, these same outlets announced that an "FBI investigation" into Flynn'scalls and texts had commenced.

But this week, we learn the hysteria about Flynn and the FBI appears to have been unwarranted. The outlets which had previously inflated the story have since backed down.

As you read their follow-up stories below, note the cause of their initial hysteria: you knowof the Mike Flynn story simply due tojournalistic ineptitude -- specifically, the journalists' ignorance of diplomatic practices -- combined with their predetermined acceptance of the Trump/Russia narrative.

Yesterday, per NBC News:

The FBI eavesdropped on telephone calls between President Donald Trump's national security adviser and the Russian ambassador but found nothing improper, a U.S. intelligence official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said late Monday that there was never a formal "investigation" of the calls in December between retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn and Sergei Kislyak, Russia's ambassador in Washington.

According to the source, who was confirming a Washington Post report earlier Monday, intelligence officials merely listened in as part of routine eavesdropping on Kislyak.

...

The former official, who requested anonymity to speak about sensitive information, said it was not uncommon for diplomats or other U.S. officials to garner such attention to if they are recorded talking to foreign counterparts. Rarely anything comes of this, however, because U.S. officials have wide latitude in how they communicate as part of their jobs.

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Media Covers Fake Mike Flynn Story, Ignores Bombshell on Secret Obama/Iran Meetings - PJ Media

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The crown prince is the son of Irans last king, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. He is the president of the National Council for Free Elections in Iran.

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We realize that the current regime is not going to voluntarily leave the scene, which is why we have put together a campaign of resistance and civil disobedience, Pahlavi told Breitbart News. And thats why weve been in contact with a variety of secularists within Iran representing all sorts of views from workers to teachers to labor unions to other organizations.

Adelle Nazarian of Breitbart News interviews Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. (Photo: Breitbart News)

Over half of Irans population is under the age of 40. The crown prince noted that the advent of social media and technology is a priceless tool inthe quest for freedom. And fortunately in this world of social media and Internet communication most of the give and take happens by means that were not available 20 years ago, he said.

Pahlavi recentlypenned a letter to President Donald Trump congratulating him on his victory. Asked how he views Trump and his administration with regard to U.S.-Iran relations, he said, I think the current president has indicated that he wants to be much more in support of strengthening the peoples hand and, at the same time, weakening the regime. And I think thats exactly what we were hoping to hear.

He said this rhetoric and support should not be limited to the U.S, adding that hes always advocated that the empowerment of any people is always the best solution at the end, especially when they have to fight very oppressive regimes. So, engaging with the people, helping civil society in these countries, is the quickest path to maximizing the success of such nations to overcome whatever struggle they are facing.

Irans former recently died. The businessmanhad a checkered political past and was considered the father of Irans nuclear program. While some within the regime described his as a man of peace, he was better remembered by many of the Iranian people as an oppressor and for having orchestrated several international terrorist atrocities.

The crown prince also commented on the recent death of Irans former president, Hashami Rafsanjani, who was described in the media as a man of peace but who was the father of Irans nuclear program, as well as an oppressive ruler. Pahlavi compared Rafsanjanis death to the passing of Cubas late dictator Fidel Castro: Its not the same anymore, no matter how many more junior cadres remain. And in that sense, more of a void will be created. He noted the importance of making sure that the void is filled with the proper alternative. Thats something everyone should be concerned with.

Earlier Monday evening, Pahlavi addressed a private audienceandurged civil disobedience by means of non-violence.

Reza Pahlavi (middle) receiving key to the city from currentBeverly Hills Mayor John Mirisch (right) and former mayor Lili Bosse (left). (Photo: Breitbart News)

Although he did not mention President Barack Obama by name, the crown prince said, When you fight extremely brutal regimes, such movements cannot succeed without having tacit support from other freedom-loving countries and governments. His words evoked memories of the failure of the Obama administration to provide much-needed support to the ailing Iranian people during the 2009 Green Revolution and the stolen election that fueled it.

With Rafsanjanis death, however, the crown prince noted that the regime is pretty much beginning to show indications of fragmentation, going eventually towards their collapse. He noted the importance of making sure that the path to the alternative is as smooth as possible and that complete measures are taken to make sure that a dictatorship willnot be replaced by another one. And that, indeed, it is the people who will triumph and nobody else.

Asked if the crown prince would consider taking on an elected or lineal leadership role in his country of birth, and the land where his father reigned as its last king, Pahlavi said:

Ive always said this is not about me. Its about the Iranian people and their opportunity to finally get self-determination and freedom. Thats my only objective at this point. And the day that we have free elections will be the day I will consider my political mission in life accomplished. From that day on, I cannot tell you now what the circumstances will be. Ive always said that Im ready to serve my country, in whatever capacity that my constituents choose.

Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope@AdelleNaz

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Iran's Crown Prince Pahlavi: Civil Disobedience for a Free Iran - Breitbart News

SAIPA Diesel a subsidiary of SAIPA, Irans second largest automaker, will start production of three new models of Volvo FM trucks in the coming months. The company has been producing several models of Volvo trucks in recent years. But according to the local automotive website, Persian Khodro, production of the FM series was halted five years ago. Volvo Trucks is a global truck manufacturer based in Gothenburg, Sweden, owned by AB Volvo. It is the world's second largest heavy-duty truck brand and a respected name in Iran. The website said SAIPA is set to produce three new models of the FM trucks namely D13B, D11C, and D13C. D11C has a 10.8-liter engine with a power output between 330ph to 450ph. D13B which was introduced by Volvo in 2007 has a 12.8-liter engine and power output between 360ph to 440ph. The model uses Volvos Exhaust Gas Recirculation configuration and VGT turbocharger. D13C also has a 12.8-liter engine and a power output between 380ph to 500ph. News about the three new trucks entering the local market led to a 2% growth in SAIPA and SAIPA Diesel share value in the local stock market while the bourse in Tehran has generally been on the downward trajectory. The improving fortunes of the car company could also be due to the upcoming visit of the French Foreign Minister to Iran. Jean-Marc Ayrault is expected to lead a strong trade and economic delegation. Citroen officials are expected to be part of the delegation, which is likely to lead to positive moves in the implementation of SAIPA-Citroen deal. SAIPA and Citroen signed a joint venture in January. The Iranian firm is set to hand one of its production plants in Kashan in Isfahan Province to Citroen in the coming months. Saipa Diesel had a successful experience in producing Volvo trucks in Iran. Saipa Diesels Volvo sold FH 12 series quickly dominated Iran roads, back in 2005. During the sanctions; however, Saipa started to partner Chinese firms offering cheaper models. There are 120,000-130,000 vehicles in Iran's cargo truck fleet with over 25 years in age on average. The Roads Ministry is planning to replace 15,000 old trucks each year. Earlier this week, the ministry signed a contract with Mammut Industrial Group, Scanias official partner in Iran, over replacing 5,000 old trucks with brand-new Scania models, either assembled or imported by Mammut. Iran Khodro Diesel, Middle Easts largest automaker, has also inked a deal with Germanys Daimler to produce Mercedes-Benz models in near future. Contrary to their Chinese competitors, the above-mentioned companies are favored by drivers and fleet owners, as they offer top quality builds, good fuel economy and highly liquid when it comes to selling.

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Volvo To Make Trucks in Iran - Financial Tribune