Assad Regime Offers Settlement Agreement in Daraa Al-Balad

The Bashar al-Assad regime intends to impose a settlement agreement in Daraa al-Balad, similar to the agreement concluded in the town of Tafas, in the western countryside, which was implemented about a month ago.

Informed sources from Daraa told Alsouria Net on Monday that the agreement, which the Daraa al-Balad neighborhoods may accept in the coming days, includes delivering medium and light weapons and the full handing over of government facilities to the Assad regime.

The sources added that security officials in the Assad regime began preparing for the agreement in recent days, in conjunction with preparations by the Russians to receive the demands of the people in the region.

For his part, Governor of Daraa Marwan Sharbak told Al-Watan newspaper that “work is underway to complete the settlement in Daraa al-Balad,” describing the results reached thus far as “very good.”

The Daraa Governorate has been living in a state of security chaos since the signing of the settlement agreement in July 2018, while the parties behind the assassinations and bombings, which affected members of the opposition and the regime, are still unknown.

In the past two years, the Assad regime and its ally, Russia, have cloned settlement agreements in most of the villages and towns of Daraa and its countryside, the last of which was in the town of Tafas in the western countryside.

Daraa al-Balad neighborhoods are the only area in which Assad’s forces have not been able to impose effective military influence, since late 2018.

The neighborhoods are home to dozens of defectors from Assad’s forces and those who have defected from compulsory service, as well as fighters who were formerly within the ranks of the opposition factions.

The terms of the settlement agreements are limited to handing over medium and light weapons that youths and fighters are in possession of, provided that this step is followed by settling the youths’ and fighters’ security situation and assigning them to military units.

The number of defectors who are supposed to be included in the expected settlement agreement is about 50, and the sources indicated that the implementation of the terms of the agreement is scheduled to start soon.

According to the source, “the settlement agreement will put an end to the issue of uncontrolled weapons in the Daraa al-Balad region, in order to pave the way for the Assad forces to impose their full control over the neighborhoods in the area.”

The aforementioned comes within the framework of the steps that the Assad forces are taking, with the support of Russia, to restore full military and security authority over the regions of southern Syria.