Representative of the Syrian opposition that participated in the Astana talks on the Syrian reconciliation, called on the international community to disqualify Saudi Arabia from mediating settlement of the Syrian conflict, according to a letter of the so-called Astana Initiative's Executive Committee obtained by Sputnik on Saturday.

More than 70 representatives of the Syrian opposition gathered in Kazakhstan's capital Astana twice in 2015 — in May and October.

"Saudi Arabia's attitude since the start of the conflict and the fact that Saudi authorities have raised tensions between communities and encouraged the emergence of groups of extremist fighters should disqualify them from taking part in negotiations that will lead to peace in Syria," the letter sent to US Special Envoy for Syria, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura and the Russian Foreign Ministry reads.

The Nigerian army has managed to regain control over all the communities previously captured by Boko Haram militant group in the northeastern part of the country, the head of the local National Emergency Management Agency said as quoted by local media on Saturday.

He added that this success was possible because of the courage of the local soldiers and commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to the fight against Boko Haram.

"There is no community that has not been liberated from Boko Haram now," Sani Sidi told reporters in the city of Kaduna.

"For sure it will cause a big delay and it may kill the whole process. Whoever committed this crime is pushing for a military solution, not a political process solution."

That's a quote from Hadi al-Bahra, a Syrian opposition leader. The comments come a day after an apparent Russian airstrike killed Zahran Alloush. Alloush, the son of Saudi-based cleric Abdallah Alloush, is (or, more appropriately "was") the leader of Jaysh al Islam, a powerful Syrian opposition group whose forces number some 10,000.

The group controls Ghouta, the site of an infamous sarin gas attack that nearly served as the excuse for a US air campaign against the Assad regime in 2013. Alloush was violently anti-Shiite and anti-Alawite but was seen as "moderate" when compared to ISIS and al-Nusra. Jaysh al Islam has fought against Islamic State in various parts of Syria.

Today the Syrian airforce used air delivered missiles on buildings where a meeting of Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) leaders and others took place and killed its leader Zahran Alloush, several of his lieutenants and some leading personnel from Ahrar al-Shams, Failaq al Rahman, another anti-government Salafist group, and Jabhat al-Nusra.

Alloush, here a video of him preaching, was an extremely sectarian man. He called for the "cleansing" of all Alawite and Shia from Syria and he put Alawite women into cages on marketplaces to use them as human shields against government attacks. He praised Osama Bin Laden. Two Years ago Joshua Landis provided a profile of Alloush with some translation of his speeches.

Alloush had many enemies. Unlike other "moderates" he fought not only against the government. When challenged by ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra or any local competition he fought them too. In the eyes of some Gulf propagandists that made him a "moderate". But his ideologically positions were nearly identical to those of the Islamic State or al-Qaeda. His pasture was the Ghouta area, east of Damascus and he had about 12,000 troops under his command. The Saudis and the Turks paid him and his men.

Footage from the 2010 Victory Day Parade in Moscow, in 2010. It kinda speaks for itself, doesn't it?

The results of the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi signify that Russia and India remain close and trusted strategic partners.

As Russia and India signed new agreements in the defense, nuclear and energy sectors on December 24, it became apparent that Moscow remains one of Delhi's most important strategic partners, the Washington Post observes.

The officials of the two countries have also agreed to ease visa regulations, to cooperate on a joint venture to build military helicopters in India, and to develop nuclear reactors in India.

The leader of the Islamic State jihadist group (ISIL or Daesh, outlawed in Russia) issued an audio message where he threatened Israel, media reported on Saturday.

"The Jews thought we forgot Palestine and that they had distracted us from it. Not at all, Jews. We did not forget Palestine for a moment. With the help of Allah, we will not forget it... The pioneers of the jihadist fighters will surround you on a day that you think is distant and we know is close. We are getting closer every day," Abu Bakr Baghdadi said as quoted by The Telegraph.

Police in Vienna has stepped up security following a warning about a potential terror attack employing explosives or firearms between the Christmas and New Year holidays. According to police, the warning was issued to several European capitals.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Austrian police said that the warning came from an unidentified "friendly intelligence service" just days before Christmas, offering mostly general information about the possible attacks without specifying potential targets or exact dates.

It added that "several possible names of potential attackers were mentioned, who were checked and the investigation based on (these checks) has so far yielded no concrete results."

"We do not know if these people exist in real life, or if they are only names with no real person behind them. We have no evidence that they are in Vienna, and we have no evidence that they are even in Europe," Christoph Poelzl, a spokesman for Vienna police, said as quoted by the Guardian.

Poelzl refused to give any further details concerning the terror warning as he did not reveal the list of European capitals mentioned in the warning.

In the view of the warning, Vienna authorities said that no public events would be canceled but police surveillance will increase in the places expected to attract large numbers of people during the specific period. Police will also pay closer attention to suspicious bags.

Germany is seeking economic cooperation with Russia, offering 2 billion euro to participate in the construction of a Moscow-Kazan high-speed railway, the Russian Railways reported Friday.

China Railway Group and Russian Railroad have kicked off a new project to design and build a high-speed railway between Moscow and the southeastern city of Kazan. It is expected that the line would be extended to Beijing, reducing the duration of a rail journey between Moscow and China's capital to 48 hours.

"We have a proposal from our German colleagues on signing a similar (Russia-China) memorandum on cooperation, where they make commitments on financing of up to €2 billion in the project on various conditions," Vice President of Russian Railways (RZD) Aleksandr Misharin told journalists.

Misharin stated that the project would seek additional financial support next year, though a contract has not yet been signed. Earlier, China agreed to invest some $6 billion to fund the proposed railway. The cost of the 700 kilometer Moscow-Kazan rail line is calculated to be some $21.4 billion. The train is expected to travel at speeds of up to 400 kilometers per hour.

Under the new line, travelers would take three and half hours to get from Moscow to Kazan, compared to the current 14 hours. According to a statement made earlier by Misharin, the railway will take up to 10 years to build and, "in terms of scale and significance," could be compared to the Suez Canal.

​A recent poll conducted by the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce (ANK) has found that 80 percent of companies that have trade links with Russia believe that economic sanctions are not having their desired effect.

The Dutch government is set, once the holidays are over, to come to a consensus on whether to start bombing 'IS targets' in Syria. In the following interview by Dutch news channel NPO2 on the December 17, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad explained why he thinks The Netherlands has no place in Syria. Should the NATO member-state start dropping bombs in Syria, Assad says this would constitute an illegal act under international law.

In response, Dutch foreign affairs minister Bert Koenders told Dutch news outlet NOS that Assad is not the kind of president who should be teaching the Netherlands a lesson about international law. "He throws barrels bombs on his own population and is responsible for mass killings and large numbers of refugees," Koenders said.

Given that there is in fact no evidence that Assad's forces are indiscriminately killing civilians, it appears that Dutch officials are parroting everything the US government has been spouting in recent years about Syria and the removal of its legitimately-elected president. Perhaps the Dutch foreign affairs minister needs to be reminded of the following:

Many armchair critics of this 'dictator' [Assad] are probably unaware that he was re-elected just last year, after 3 years of fighting a war against foreign mercenaries. In the 2014 elections:

• 73.42% of the population turned out to vote;
• 88.7% of whom voted for Assad;
• So, 65% of Syrians voted for Assad.

This was in the midst of a refugee crisis. While many countries allowed Syrians within their borders to vote at their respective embassies, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE and the United States did not allow the elections to be held in their Syrian embassies.

While Koenders and other Western officials cannot provide evidence to show that Assad is the 'evil dictator' they claim him to be, and that the Syrian people are 'against' him, Assad himself is very clear about the situation and refers to the facts every time. The president further shows that he is pragmatic and is willing to cooperate with other countries, as long as they do not support terrorists.

Unfortunately, cooperation with Western nations has proven to be difficult because they refuse to communicate with the Syrian government and prefer to conduct unilateral operations. The results of the Western coalition's 'war against Islamic State' have been meager to say the least. As Assad says in this interview:

"Western politics regarding terrorism, is not objective, and not realistic, and actually not only not productive; it's counter-productive. What is the reality? The reality is that ISIS has been expanding since the coalition started in 2014."

You can watch the full interview (22 minutes) below. A transcript is also provided, courtesy of the Syrian Arab News Agency: