Russian talks with Syria rebels fizzle
Airstrikes intensify against insurgents in southern province
Negotiations between Russian officers and Syrian rebels to end days of violence in the country’s south collapsed Saturday after opposition forces rejected surrender conditions proposed by Moscow, a rebel spokesman and a war monitor said.
Shortly after the collapse of negotiations over southern Syria, airstrikes intensified on rebel-held parts of Daraa province, which borders Jordan. Saturday’s talks came on the heels of similar negotiations tha st took place Friday, in which the Russians tabled their conditions to halt a Russian-backed government offensive to capture rebel-held areas along the borders with Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
“The talks collapsed because the Russians insisted on their conditions that want us to surrender,” said rebel spokesman Ibrahim Jabawi. “The [rebels’] negotiating team refused to surrender and refused to accept the Russian conditions.”
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, also confirmed that the talks collapsed, adding that shortly afterward Syrian and Russian warplanes intensified their airstrikes.
Syrian state media said earlier Saturday that more areas in Daraa province had been captured and that in others rebels had agreed to hand over their weapons and reconcile with the government.
The government offensive that began June 19 has killed scores of people, wounded hundreds of others and forced more than 50,000 to flee to areas close to the borders with Jordan and the Golan Heights.
The situation was quickly deteriorating at several spots along the border with no shelter, running water or sanitary facilities, according to aid organizations and activists in the area. Humanitarian organizations have called on Jordan to open the border to Syrians fleeing violence.
Jordan closed its border with Syria after a car bomb in June 2016 killed seven Jordanian border guards.
The Jordanian prime minister’s office said Saturday that the armed forces would be delivering humanitarian aid to the Syrian side of the border, but it gave no indication that the border would open.
Without having access to the families gathered at the border, determining the extent of the need is impossible, said Karl Schembri, the Middle East spokesman for the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“The situation is really grim, and we know there are more people on the way,” Schembri said by phone. Information for this article was contributed by Bassem Mroue and Akram Fares of The Associated Press; and by Megan Specia of The New York Times.