Syria. The regime and the rebels announce an agreement in the south

An agreement between the Syrian government and southern rebels on the province of Deraa, between the Syrian government and the southern rebels was concluded.

The Syrian government and rebels in southern Syria have reached an agreement to put an end to the regime's devastating offensive since June 19 in the province of Deraa, "cradle" of the anti-Assad revolt.

This agreement, which concerns only the province of Deraa according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), was obtained in the city of Bousra al-Cham after lengthy negotiations between Russians (regime's allies) and rebel factions, the day after a the fire that forced the insurgents to resume talks.

"An agreement was reached between the Syrian government and terrorist groups" announced the official Sana news agency, which uses the term "terrorists" to designate all the groups that fight the regime. This provides for the "entry into force of a ceasefire and surrender by terrorist groups of their heavy and medium weapons in all towns and localities" according to Sana. Those "who refuse this settlement will leave for (the province of) Idleb with their families" said the agency, a condition on which the rebel factions had insisted. On the other hand, the displaced will be able to return home, according to the same source.

"Saving blood of insurgent fighters"

On Thursday, Russia prevented the adoption of a UN declaration focused on humanitarian aid to the people of Deraa.

Under the agreement reached Friday night, state institutions will resume their work in the region and "the Syrian state will take control of all rebel positions along the Jordanian border " According to the Sana agency

In a statement, rebel groups confirmed the existence of an agreement " to spare the blood of the South while calling for UN oversight for its implementation. The spokesman of the rebel command, Hussein Abazeed, told AFP that this agreement constituted "the best possible option to spare the blood of insurgent combatants" .

The province of Deraa is border of Jordan and described as the "cradle" of the revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011. The war in Syria broke out after the repression of these pro-democracy protests by the regime.

Deraa, symbolic for Assad

A few hours before the announcement of an agreement, Russian military and Syrian officials of the border administration had arrived "without any fight" at the strategic border post Nbadib, told AFP Director of the OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahman.

The agency Sana had, she reported that the Syrian flag had "been hoisted at the post of e Nbadib " on the Jordanian border, whose rebels took control in 2015.

" Deraa is very symbolic for Assad because it is the cradle of the Syrian revolution, while (the Nbadib will push the Jordanians to invest for a return of the regime in the south-west in view of the benefits of the resumption of trade with Syria " told AFP Nicholas Heras, researcher at the Center for a New American Security

Security transfer of 6,000 people

After resuming in recent months control of rebel areas around Damascus (as in Eastern Ghouta, where he was charged with crimes against humanity by the UN), the Syrian regime turned to Deraa, one of the last rebel fiefdoms.

It led, with its Russian ally, a deadly strategy combining deadly bombings and negotiations for agreements so-called "reconciliation" similar to capitulations

More than 30 localities in the province of Deraa had already been under regime control in recent weeks under agreements with certain rebel factions. This allowed Damascus to negotiate in a position of strength, with control of nearly 70 percent of the province against 30 percent before the offensive.

According to Rebel Command spokesman Hussein Abazeed, of Friday night provides for the safe transfer of at least 6,000 people (combatants and civilians) to the province of Idleb (northwest, still under insurgent control.

150 civilians killed in 3 weeks

According to rebel sources, Moscow had previously rejected a gradual abandonment of heavy weapons by insurgents and any transfer of population.

The province of Deraa had been the subject of a ceasefire last year, under an agreement between the United States, Russia and Jordan The offensive of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which ignored it, killed 150 civilians in less than three weeks.

In Bsayra, a locality of the province of Deir Ezzor, in the east of Syria, 18 people, including 11 m Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) members were killed on Friday by a car bomb explosion in front of a headquarters of this coalition of Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by the United States, the OSDH said. The attack was not claimed.