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Russian Patrols Comb Border Areas in Southern Syria

A photo released by Sweida24 shows a Russian patrol in Dhibin.
A photo released by Sweida24 shows a Russian patrol in Dhibin.
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Russian Patrols Comb Border Areas in Southern Syria

A photo released by Sweida24 shows a Russian patrol in Dhibin.
A photo released by Sweida24 shows a Russian patrol in Dhibin.

Russian military police on Thursday conducted patrols in the governorates of Daraa and Sweida in southern Syria, a private source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“For three consecutive days starting Tuesday, Russian forces carried out several reconnaissance tours in areas mostly bordering Daraa and Sweida, such as the Yarmuk Basin areas near the border with the occupied Golan Heights, the eastern areas near the Jordanian border, and the villages and towns of the far south of Sweida on the Jordanian border,” revealed the source, who requested anonymity.

“During the past few days, Russian police visited several points in Daraa governorate, most notably the city of Busra al-Sham, the stronghold of its allied forces,” added the source.

Russian patrols also passed through several villages in the eastern countryside of Daraa where Syrian border outposts are deployed and Jordanian border guards are nearby.

According to the source, after the end of their tour in Daraa, the Russian forces headed to Sweida and to the areas near the Syrian-Jordanian border.

The patrol reached the town of Dhibin where they conducted a scouting tour, and distributed some humanitarian aid to residents.

Activists said the Russian move carries several messages to the countries of the region and its competitors in Syria, such as Iran. That message is that Russian forces are still managing the region and supervising the settlement agreement in south Syria.

Several reports and news had spread about Russia's "absence" from Syria due to its preoccupation with the war in Ukraine.

Russia withdrew forces from south Syria and deployed them to battlefronts in Ukraine, leaving the region’s governorates open for Iranian ambitions.

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Palestinians Receptive to Lebanon’s Call to Limit Possession of Weapons in Refugee Camps

The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee meets at the government headquarters. (Dialogue committee)
The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee meets at the government headquarters. (Dialogue committee)
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Palestinians Receptive to Lebanon’s Call to Limit Possession of Weapons in Refugee Camps

The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee meets at the government headquarters. (Dialogue committee)
The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee meets at the government headquarters. (Dialogue committee)

Lebanon has started to exert serious efforts to restrict the possession of weapons inside Palestinian refugee camps in the country in line with President Joseph Aoun’s inaugural speech.

The president had demanded that the possession of weapons in the country and the camps be limited to the state.

The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee met at the government headquarters in Beirut three days ago to discuss the issue.

All Palestinian factions attended the meeting, and the gatherers agreed to “completely” resolve the Palestinian possession of arms outside the camps. They also agreed to outline how to restrict weapons inside the camps in line with the president’s speech.

The Lebanese state has yet to come up with the mechanism to confiscate the weapons inside the camps.

A Lebanese security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the arms will be tackled through a political approach drawn up by the government. “It will be carried out by the army with the security agencies and in coordination with the Palestinian factions in the camp, led by the Fatah movement, which is the official representative of the Palestinian people,” it added.

The Palestinians have expressed their “complete understanding” of the issue, it remarked.

The laying down of weapons by Palestinian factions is a step towards all illegal weapons throughout the country being turned over to the Lebanese state, it went on to say.

“There are no longer any excuses for weapons to remain in possession of any organization,” stressed the source.

Lebanese groups will be demanded to lay down their arms after the Palestinian ones do, it added.

In a first, the Palestinian factions have been very receptive to a Lebanese head of state’s demand to cooperate in limiting the possession of weapons in the refugee camps.

Member of the Palestinian National and Central Councils Haitham Zaiter said that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) recognizes that the camps are part of Lebanese territories, so they come under the authority of the state and its laws.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that “complete coordination” is ongoing between the Lebanese security agencies and PLO inside the camps where several wanted Lebanese and Palestinian suspects and others from other nationalities have been turned over to the authorities.

The suspects had sought refuge in the camps to avoid justice in the crimes they have committed, he acknowledged.

“The PLO is the sole representative of the Palestinian people inside Palestine and in the diaspora,” he stated.

Moreover, Zaiter explained that Palestinian weapons in Lebanon are either carried by the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) outside the camps or by non-partisan individuals inside the camps.

The PFLP-GC laid down its weapons as soon as the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad collapsed in December.

Heavy weapons inside the camps had been previously brought in with the aim to undermine the PLO, he added.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “has constantly called for coordination with Lebanese authorities to limit the possession of these weapons,” Zaiter said.