How Al Assad exploits de-escalation zones
Government breaks agreement whenever it is ready to pick off another enclave
The Syrian government has exploited so-called de-escalation zones to squeeze rebels from one pocket at a time while the others remain quiet, breaking the agreement whenever it is ready to pick off another enclave.
It has done this in areas around Damascus’ countryside including Ghouta earlier this year.
In Dara’a, there have been reports that townspeople have sought an agreement with the government to head off violence in recent days, but the rebels refused to ratify it.
A Syrian government assault on one of the country’s last two rebel-held territories has driven 160,000 people from their homes across southwestern Syria, violating a US-backed ceasefire and threatening to entangle Israel and Jordan in the conflict.
The attack has ripped up a brittle ceasefire negotiated last year by Russia, Jordan and the United States, the Trump administration’s main peacekeeping achievement in Syria.
The United States has publicly criticised Russia for breaking the deal but has done little to enforce it, retreating from its initial warnings of “serious repercussions” for ceasefire violations and leaving southern rebels and civilians largely on their own.
“The Americans abandoned us,” said Mohammad, 30, a Dara’a resident who had evacuated his home to dodge the air strikes.
“They put us in the bloody swamp and left us.”
So far, 98 civilians have died, including 19 children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitor based in Britain.
Air strikes have punched out several local hospitals and killed medical personnel.
Israel, Syria deal
Several analysts said they believed that Israel has been negotiating a deal with Syria, with Russia as an intermediary, to keep Iranian-backed militias and fighters from Hezbollah, the Iranianaligned group based in Lebanon, away from the border.
But such an agreement has not been publicly confirmed.
“Ideologically, neither Iran nor Hezbollah will relinquish the idea of confronting Israel,” said Haytham Mouzahem, the director of the Beirut Centre for Middle East Studies.
“But in real terms, Iran may bow to Russian pressure” to steer clear of the border. Yet analysts say it would be less than surprising if Iranians turned out to be among the fighters moving south despite any Russia-Israel agreement, perhaps posing as Syrian troops.
Some pictures circulating on social media have purportedly shown Iran-backed militias on Dara’a front lines.