‘Settlement Agreement’ Displaces 150 Syrians to Al-Bab in the North

Buses carrying Syrians from the southern countryside of Quneitra to the North. (Horan News)
Buses carrying Syrians from the southern countryside of Quneitra to the North. (Horan News)
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‘Settlement Agreement’ Displaces 150 Syrians to Al-Bab in the North

Buses carrying Syrians from the southern countryside of Quneitra to the North. (Horan News)
Buses carrying Syrians from the southern countryside of Quneitra to the North. (Horan News)

About 150 people from Quneitra, southern Syria, are being displaced to areas under the control of Turkey's loyalists, according to an agreement reached between the opposition and regime and sponsored by the Russian air base in Hmeimim.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that three buses entered Um Batna in the central countryside of al-Quneitra, ahead of evacuating 30 individuals with their families to northern Syria.

The buses will head to al-Bab area in the northeastern countryside of Aleppo.

Local sources told the Observatory that the buses carried the individuals wanted by the authorities for their involvement in “terrorist activities”.

The convoy was accompanied by the Russian military police, headed to Abu al-Zendin crossing in al-Bab located in the Euphrates Shield areas, which are under the control of the opposition factions.

The agreement provides for the displacement of 30 wanted persons with their families, in exchange for ending the blockade, within five days.

The wanted persons asked Brigadier General Talal al-Ali in Sasa security branch to release two young men from their hometown, as part of the agreement, resulting in the immediate release of one of them. The second is set to be freed within few days.

The Horan Free League said that the displacement comes within the framework of the final agreement between the Sasa branch and the notables of the region.

A displaced person asserted that Iran played a role in the recent developments in Um Batna, and that the Iranian militias are working to empty the area of young men to tighten their control over the area near the Golan Heights.

The agreement was struck after an escalation earlier this month when gunmen attacked an Iranian military post in Doha village near the border.

The regime forces responded to the attack with artillery shelling from Tal al-Shaar, which led to the displacement of several people towards neighboring villages.

A blockade was imposed on Um Batna, and forces closed its entrances threatening to enter the village unless 30 wanted young men were handed over to the authorities.



Syria Authorities Say Armed Groups Have Agreed to Disband

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks to the media in Damascus, Syria, December 23, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks to the media in Damascus, Syria, December 23, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
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Syria Authorities Say Armed Groups Have Agreed to Disband

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks to the media in Damascus, Syria, December 23, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks to the media in Damascus, Syria, December 23, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Syria's new leaders announced Tuesday that they had reached an agreement with the country's opposition groups on their dissolution and integration under the defense ministry.  

Absent from the meeting were representatives of the US-backed, Kurdish-led forces that control swathes of Syria's northeast.  

The meeting between the opposition groups and Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa "ended in an agreement on the dissolution of all the groups and their integration under the supervision of the ministry of defense", said a statement carried by the SANA news agency and the authorities' Telegram account.

The announcement comes just over two weeks after President Bashar al-Assad fled Syria, following a lightning offensive spearheaded by Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group.

On Sunday Sharaa, long known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, had said the new authorities would "absolutely not allow there to be weapons in the country outside state control".  

That also applied to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), he said.  

Last week, the military chief of HTS told AFP that Kurdish-held areas would be integrated under the new leadership, and that "Syria will not be divided".  

Thirteen years of civil war in Syria has left more than half a million people dead and fragmented the country into zones of influence controlled by different armed groups backed by regional and international powers.

SDF spokesman Farhad Shami told AFP the question of his group's integration into the national armed forces "should be discussed directly".  

He did not dismiss the possibility, saying that doing so would strengthen "the whole of Syria".  

Shami added that his forces prefer "dialogue with Damascus to resolve all questions".  

- 'Economic leverage' -  

Türkiye has long held ties with HTS, and analysts say that since the opposition took over Syria, both sides have sought to profit from the relationship.  

Ankara accuses the People's Protection Units (YPG) -- the main component of the SDF -- of being affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.  

Earlier this month, a Syria specialist who advises Western diplomats in Türkiye said: "The Turks would like to push HTS into striking at the Kurds but HTS doesn't want to get involved."

Although Ankara's role in Assad's overthrow had been "overstated", Türkiye now has "real economic leverage" thanks to the 900-kilometer (560-mile) border it shares with Syria, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.  

How the situation develops will also depend on US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20 but has already proclaimed that "Türkiye is going to hold the key to Syria".  

Since late November, the SDF has been battling Türkiye-backed fighters who launched an offensive on Kurdish-held areas at the same time as HTS's anti-Assad campaign.  

On Tuesday, the SDF said in a statement its fighters were waging deadly combat to the east of the key city of Manbij, with 16 deaths in its ranks.  

Syria's Kurds, long oppressed under Assad's rule, saw an opportunity during the war to carve out a semi-autonomous territory in the northeast.  

They proved an indispensable ally to the US-led coalition battling the ISIS group.  

Since Assad's ouster on December 8, they have issued numerous statements welcoming his downfall, and also put out calls for dialogue with the new leadership in Damascus and with Türkiye.  

In Syria's northeast, both the Kurdish flag and the three-star independence-era flag used by the new authorities can be seen.