Syria rebels to give up zone near Golan
BEIRUT: Syrian rebels have agreed to surrender a sensitive area bordering the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, a monitor and opposition source said on Thursday, the latest in a series of deals expanding regime control over key territory.
The agreement follows another deal that saw thousands of residents evacuated Thursday morning from two pro-regime towns in northern Syria long besieged by hardline rebels.
Both deals, negotiated by regime ally Russia, will be seen as victories for President Bashar al-Assad over the seven-year uprising that once threatened his rule.
With a mix of military force and negotiated surrenders, his forces this month captured more than 90 percent of Daraa, the southern province where protests against him first erupted in 2011.
They then began intensely bombing rebels in Quneitra, a crescent-shaped province wedged between Daraa and the buffer zone with the Israel-occupied Golan to the west.
Under pressure, rebels have agreed to hand over Quneitra and the buffer to government forces, an opposition negotiator and a monitoring group told AFP on Thursday.
“The deal provides for a ceasefire, the handover of heavy and medium weapons, and the return of government institutions to the area,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britainbased monitoring group.
Syrian forces would take over opposition territory in the buffer zone and some rebel fighters would be bussed to opposition territory in northern Syria, he added.