Peter Oborne Optimistic That Syria Ceasefire Will Hold

The Chiswick journalist recently visited Aleppo

Local journalist Peter Oborne has said that he believes the current ceasefire in Syria could hold.

In an interview with The Chiswick Calendar, Mr. Oborne, who is married to the vicar of St Michael's Elmwood Road, Martine Oborne, talks about his recent visit to Aleppo, a city that he describes as "uncannily empty" and which is divided into areas controlled either by the Syrian government forces, or to the east, by a number of groups such as the Free Syrian Army, or ISIS.

He describes how Aleppo is full of displaced people from neighbouring areas, who told him stories about how, after the ISIS forces moved in, they had been forced to obey Sharia law and how they had been threatened. Children had been brainwashed to join ISIS and to inform on their parents. And people have been regularly called out to watch videos in public squares of executions and other punishments by so-called transgressions of Sharia law.

He described it as an "unspeakably brutal" war but said he was "quite hopeful" that the current ceasefire, brokered by the Western powers and Russia, could, due to a joint determination, provide the basis for the end of the war.

March 12, 2016