The Syrian regime on Friday reached a deal with rebels for the surrender of the remaining opposition-held cities and towns in the southern province of Daraa, the cradle of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The deal comes more than two weeks into a devastating Russian-backed government offensive on rebel-held areas of southern Syria close to Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
“An agreement has been reached between the Syrian government and the terrorist groups” that includes “the handover of heavy and medium weapons in all cities and towns,” the official SANA news agency said, adding that fighters who rejected the agreement would be evacuated with their families to the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib.
The deal also provides for government forces to take over “all observation posts along the Syrian-Jordanian border,” it said, hours after the regime regained control of the vital Nassib border crossing with Jordan.
While the offensive has targeted parts of the neighboring Quneitra and Sweida provinces, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deal only concerned Daraa Province.
The UN says the assault, which began on June 19, has pushed more than 320,000 people to flee, but SANA said the deal would see them return to their homes.
Rebel spokesman Hussein Abazeed said that “the deal was the best we could achieve to save the lives of our fighters.”
It came after the collapse of a previous round of talks on Wednesday ushered in a day-long volley of air strikes, barrel bombs and missiles that ultimately pressured rebels to return to the table.
The talks resumed at about noon on Friday in the town of Busra al-Sham, freshly recaptured by government troops.
Moscow, which intervened militarily in Syria in 2015, has employed a carrot-and-stick strategy of intense bombardment alongside talks that has allowed the regime to recapture swathes of territory.
Under Russian-backed “reconciliation” deals, rebels hand over heavy weapons, local police take control of the area and government institutions resume operations.
More than 30 rebel towns have agreed to fall back under regime control through similar agreements, more than doubling the government’s hold on Daraa Province to about 70 percent.
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