US warns Syria about cease-fire violations
Lebanon says new Syrian redevelopment law could hinder return of refugees
WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) – The United States warned Syria on Friday it will take “firm and appropriate measures” in response to cease-fire violations, saying it is concerned about reports of an impending military operation in a de-escalation zone in the country’s southwest.
Washington also cautioned Syrian President Bashar Assad against broadening the conflict.
“As a guarantor of this de-escalation area with Russia and Jordan, the United States will take firm and appropriate measures in response to Assad regime violations,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Friday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Wednesday that Syrian government forces, fresh from their victory last week against an Islamic State pocket in south Damascus, were moving into the southern province of Deraa.
Syrian state-run media reported that government aircraft dropped leaflets on rebel-held areas in Deraa urging fighters to disarm.
The US warning comes weeks after a similar attack on a de-escalation zone in northeastern Syria held by US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. US ground and air forces repelled the more than four-hour attack, killing perhaps as many as 300 pro-Assad militia members, many of them Russian mercenaries.
Backed by Russian warplanes, ground forces from Iran and allied militia, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, have helped Assad drive rebels from Syria’s biggest cities, putting him in an unassailable military position.
They have recaptured all remaining insurgent areas near Damascus in recent weeks, including the densely populated eastern Ghouta area, as well as big enclaves in central Syria.
The government is now in its strongest position since the early months of the war in 2011, although still a long way from achieving Assad’s aim of reasserting sway over all of Syria.
Anti-Assad rebels still control two large contiguous areas of territory in the northwest and southwest. Kurdish and allied Arab militia backed by the United States hold the quarter of Syria east of the Euphrates.
The government’s gains have brought it to a point where any new military campaign risks putting it in conflict with foreign powers.
On Saturday, Lebanon expressed concern to Damascus over a new law aimed at redeveloping areas devastated by seven years of war, saying the initiative could hinder the return of many Syrian refugees to their homeland.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil wrote in a letter to his Syrian counterpart, Walid al-Moualem, that the terms of “Law 10” could make it difficult for refugees to prove property ownership, and in turn discourage some from returning.
The legislation came into effect last month as the army was on the brink of crushing the last insurgent enclaves near Damascus, consolidating Assad’s grip over nearly all of western Syria.
It allows people to prove they own property in the areas chosen for redevelopment, and to claim compensation. But aid groups say the chaos of war means few will be able to do so in the time specified. The law has yet to be applied.
Bassil, whose country hosts more than a million Syrian refugees, voiced concern over the limited time frame given for refugees to prove possession of their properties.
“The inability of the refugees to practically present what proves their possession [of their properties] during the given time limit might lead to them losing their properties and their sense of national identity,” Bassil said in the letter, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.