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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Pro Assad militia declares truce in Deraa, Quneitra and Sweida
2017-07-04
Syrian army forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday that they have temporarily halted combat operations in the south of the country ahead of Russian-sponsored ceasefire talks with rebel groups in Kazakhstan.

A statement by the military said hostilities would stop in the provinces of Deraa, Quneitra and Sweida, state news agency SANA reported.

“In order to support the peace process and national reconciliation, a cessation of hostilities … will last until midnight on July 6,” the statement said.

The unilateral freeze was not expected to include fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor tracking developments in Syria’s war via a wide network of sources on the ground, confirmed to the AFP news agency that fighting “almost completely stopped” across the mentioned areas.

The news came after a large Syrian rebel faction in the south said it would not attend a new round of talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana, because the government was not abiding by previous ceasefire agreements.

A spokesman for the Southern Front, a coalition of Free Syrian Army rebel groups, cast doubt on whether the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed allies would halt attacks on the front lines in Deraa and in Quneitra province.

“The Free Syrian Army are very distrustful of the regime’s intentions in abiding by the ceasefire. It will be like the previous one,” Major Issam al-Rayes told the Reuters news agency.

Delegates are expected to begin meeting with a UN mediator and other diplomats on July 4.

The two sides have held four previous rounds of talks in Kazakhstan since January in parallel to UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva. Neither process has made much progress.

A ceasefire declared in May, which is built around so-called “de-escalation zones”, has been repeatedly violated.

Syria’s war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions from their homes since it began in March 2011.

Agencies
Posted by:badanov

#1  A spokesman for the Southern Front, a coalition of Free Syrian Army rebel groups, cast doubt on whether the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed allies would halt attacks on the front lines in Deraa and in Quneitra province.
Well, D'Oh! The Assad Regime wants to win, understand now? Comedy Gold, it is.
Posted by: magpie   2017-07-04 11:43  

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