With the regime's return to southern Syria, Jordan rethinks rebel support

Jaber Al Sarhan, Jordan: Standing on the edge of this formerly popular border crossing You can see the black, white and red Syrian flag on the no man's land that connects Jordan to Syria. On the other side, a group of soldiers lounging around an entrenched tank, while army trucks are throwing dust on a dirt track

C & # 39; is a new show: for more than three years The tricolor flag of the opposition was flying over the arched entrance of Syria, and it is the rebels who patrolled the fields covered with wheat nearby [19659003] Dara – this month pushed the rebels to the brink of capitulation

Although Jordan has long supported the rebels, the change is not entirely undesirable.

long a conduit for fighters and weapons and ammunition provided by the US that fueled the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, gets tired of the rebels and the long war.

Jordan has now launched a quick rapprochement with Damascus, even as Syrian pro-government forces, back "The presence of the Syrian Army … is a positive step and serves Jordanian national security", said Brig. General Khaled Mbadaid, military commander of the northern region of Jordan, in an interview with the newspaper Al Rai this month

Echoing the rhetoric used by Damascus, which regularly calls the rebels terrorists, Mbadaid said that the Jordanian army had been forced to secure the border while it was in the hands of "terrorist organizations".

Jordanian officials and rebel commanders, however, said Mbadaid was referring to militant elements. opposition, including fighters affiliated with Al Qaeda and Daesh, who still hold parts of Daraa.

And in recent weeks, Jordan has restricted supplies of aid from its territory to Syria pending Al Assad's approval. Government, even as more than 230,000 people remain displaced in southwestern Syria, according to a UN report released Wednesday.

"Before, the Security Council (UN) had authorized But now, it is the Syrian government that is on the other side of the border, so the whole mechanism is in question," said a humanitarian worker. speaking under the seal of anonymity, adding that a convoy had been waiting on the Jordanian side of the border since 27 June.

Jordan is the gateway to Jaber-Nbadib, a vital pbadageway through which almost a fifth of the kingdom's exports flowed before the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011.

When the Syrian region is Falling into rebel hands in 2015, it has again dealt an additional blow to Jordan's faltering economy.

"We hope things will come back to what they were in 2010 before the war," said Odeh Rawashdeh, head of the Jordanian Farmers' Union, during a telephone interview on Monday. last week [19659002] The Jaber-Nbadib crossing, it's help, had been the main artery for Jordanian products to Lebanon, Turkey and Europe.

Although the merchants tried to circumvent the closure by sending their goods to Aqaba and Haifa in Jordan. Palestinian areas occupied by Israelis in 1948 were often too expensive and products often deteriorated in transit.

"There was no real alternative market, Iraq took a little …" Meanwhile, no less than 5,000 truckers are waiting to start transporting goods through the crossing, "said Mohammad Daoud, director of the Jordanian Association of Truck Owners, [traduction] in a telephone interview on Thursday.

" We expect to begin the transfer of goods at the intersection within 20 days, "said Daoud, explaining that the goods would be trucked to the railroad crossing before being transferred into vehicles driven by Syrian drivers on the other side

" Jordanian drivers driving goods into Syria will arrive in six or seven months, "he predicted. [19659002LegelegationinAmmanrelationswithDamasintervenesinwhichbellelingshavebeenedbyymbolicjunctionwhenthegovernmentforces

In what has become a familiar scene across the south of Syria accompanied by Ru The Sisian military police have entered Deraa, signaling the rebels' acceptance of a reconciliation agreement that will would lay down arms in exchange for a general amnesty and the return of state institutions. (Critics argue that the transactions are nothing more than forced surrender, and that those who accept the amnesty are persecuted or forced to enlist in the army.)

The major part of southwestern province, Damascus has now turned its attention to Quneitra province, home to rebels and army Khalid Bin Walid, a Daesh affiliate that holds a corner of territory near the Golan Heights and Jordan occupied by Israel.

"The city of Deraa is now totally under the sovereignty of the Syrian state, under the symbol of the Syrian Arab Republic, our flag," said a journalist from the pro-government news channel Ikhbariyah while a tower on Dara's main square …

Yet, the city represents more than the heart of the rebel stronghold that stretched until last month over two-thirds of the province; it is the birthplace of the uprisings against Al Assad.

This symbolism has not escaped the government: the Syrian flag has now been raised only a few meters from the Omari Mosque, the site of the anti-government protests in March 2011 that took place turned into a ruinous civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions of people and left vast tracts of the country in ruins.

"The message was that started, and here is where it ended. That's what the regime meant, "pro-opposition spokesman Ebrahim Nour Al Deen told reporters on Thursday.

Dara's fall" rings the knell of the factions. " Western-backed opposition to the extremist terrorist groups that control the remaining rebel enclaves.

They were the first recipients of US, Saudi, and Emirati support, with arsenals to pave the way for Damascus,

But their offensive failed in June 2015, and when Russia supported Al Assad by joining the war four months later, they never found their place.

When a ceasefire the fire brokered by Moscow, Amman and Washington in 2017 settled, opposition supporters saw no reason to continue their support.

"When the Americans withdrew with them the Saudis and the Emirates, "said Rakan Khdeir, the commander of a Syrian tribal force trained and provided by Jordan.

Khdeir, based in Amman, said that Jordan had little choice but to take care of Damascus. "Made of life".

"Jordan liked helping the rebels, but she was unable to do it alone," he said. The Americans have fled, you can not expect Jordan to stay there. "