Daraa Leaders Mull Russian Proposal for Permanent Solution

Protests in Suwayda, Syria on Saturday. (Suwayda 24 website)
Protests in Suwayda, Syria on Saturday. (Suwayda 24 website)
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Daraa Leaders Mull Russian Proposal for Permanent Solution

Protests in Suwayda, Syria on Saturday. (Suwayda 24 website)
Protests in Suwayda, Syria on Saturday. (Suwayda 24 website)

Central negotiating committees in Syria’s southwestern Daraa Governorate have concluded their meetings with Russian representatives on Saturday by receiving a roadmap for a final settlement to end the escalation. The proposal will be presented to local leaders and the public for further discussion.

With another meeting set to be held on Sunday, both the committees and Russian representatives agreed to give negotiations the opportunity to develop over more sessions. Nevertheless, both sides want to have a final solution within a maximum of 15 days.

News sources revealed that a deal has been reached to reopen the Saraya crossing to the governorate’s capital city, also named Daraa. Regime forces, backed by Russia, had blocked Saraya to all vehicles.

During meetings with Daraa committees, Russia’s leading delegate to the Syrian south had vowed to present a new roadmap to settle the conflict peacefully in the next few days.

General Andrei, the new Russian official in charge of the southern Syrian file, reaffirmed the need to implement a ceasefire between warring parties.

The Russian roadmap, as previous settlements, includes the handing over of individual weapons and the displacement of people unwilling to settle their status, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Moreover, the plan stipulates establishing three security centers in Daraa and settling the status of Syrian Army fugitives to guarantee that the regime will not pursue them in the future.

Russia will supervise the implementation of all demands and conditions.

According to sources, some items of the roadmap remain confidential and undisclosed.

Despite the Daraa Central Committee mulling over the Russian proposal, some rebels have issued a collective statement on Friday evening asserting their rejection of any deal that includes handing over arms and displacement.

For more than a month and a half, government forces and pro-Iranian factions have been besieging the neighborhoods of Daraa and closing most of the roads leading to them.



Israel Halts Aid, Official Says, as Gazan Clans Deny Hamas is Stealing It

Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP)
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Israel Halts Aid, Official Says, as Gazan Clans Deny Hamas is Stealing It

Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP)

Israel has halted aid supplies to Gaza for two days to prevent them being seized by Hamas, an official said on Thursday after images circulated of masked men on aid trucks whom clan leaders said were protecting aid, not diverting it to the militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a joint statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz, said late on Wednesday that he had ordered the military to present a plan within two days to prevent Hamas from taking control of aid.

The decision was made after Netanyahu and Katz cited new information indicating that Hamas was seizing aid intended for civilians in northern Gaza. The statement did not disclose the information but a video circulating on Wednesday showed dozens of masked men, some armed with rifles but most carrying sticks, riding on aid trucks

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that aid deliveries had been temporarily suspended for two days to allow the military time to develop a new plan.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli prime minister's office, the defense ministry or the Israeli military.

The Higher Commission for Tribal Affairs, which represents influential clans in the territory, said that trucks had been protected as part of an aid security process managed "solely through tribal efforts". The commission said that no Palestinian faction, a reference to Hamas, had taken part in the process.

Hamas, the militant group that has ruled Gaza for more than two decades but now controls only parts of the territory after nearly two years of war with Israel, denied any involvement.

Throughout the war, numerous clans, civil society groups and factions - including Hamas' secular political rival Fatah - have stepped in to help provide security for the aid convoys.

Clans made up of extended families connected through blood and marriage have long been a fundamental part of Gazan society.

ACUTE SHORTAGE

Amjad al-Shawa, director of an umbrella body for Palestinian non-governmental organisations, said the aid protected by clans on Wednesday was being distributed to vulnerable families.

There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies after the nearly two-year military campaign by Israel that has displaced most of Gaza's two million inhabitants.

Aid trucks and warehouses storing supplies have often been looted, frequently by desperate and starving Palestinians. Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies.

"The clans came ... to form a stance to prevent the aggressors and the thieves from stealing the food that belongs to our people," Abu Salman Al Moghani, a representative of Gazan clans, said, referring to Wednesday's operation.

The Wednesday video was shared on X by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who claimed that Hamas had taken control of aid allowed into Gaza by the Israeli government. Bennett is widely seen as the most viable challenger to Netanyahu at the next election.

Netanyahu has also faced pressure from within his right-wing coalition, with some hardline members threatening to quit over ceasefire negotiations and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

In response, Israel launched a military campaign that has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to local health authorities in Gaza.

At least 103 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire over the past 24 hours, local health authorities said, including some shot near an aid distribution point, the latest in a series of such incidents. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Twenty hostages remain in captivity in Gaza, while Hamas is also holding the bodies of 30 who have died.