- Nineteen prisoners use cutlery to break out of cells at Winchester prison
- France wants progress in Ukraine before Russia returns to G7
- Italy president begins talks to seek way out of government crisis
- Italian PM expected to resign as political chaos deepens
- Russia says US cruise missile test ‘regrettable’
- Kremlin - No date set for Normandy talks on Ukraine despite Macron meeting
- Egypt court hands out 6 death sentences on terror charges
- Putin says Russian nuclear explosion poses no threat
- Russian panel eyes alleged foreign interference in protests
- Gran Canaria wildfire triggers evacuation of thousands of people
- PM Johnson calls on Germany and France to compromise on Brexit
- Sudan's ex-president Bashir arrives at corruption trial
TEHRAN, July 05 -Militants in southern Syria say they are returning to talks with Russia, an ally of the Damascus government, after a one-day pause in negotiations.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -“The talks will resume, but they are waiting to see whether the meeting will be in the Nassib border crossing or in Busra al-Sham, the same place as last time,” said Hussein Abazeed, a spokesman for militants, on Thursday.
Another statement from the joint operations room of the militants in southern Syria said they were willing to return to the talks, an apparent sign they fear huge losses among their ranks as a result of the government’s anti-terror offensive in the area.
"We agree on an immediate cessation of hostilities on both sides to have a new round of negotiations," the statement said.
Russia, which has been brokering talks with militants in southern, started a new round of talks with militants in southern Syria on Wednesday in an effort to make them hand back the areas they control to the Damascus government without fighting as the national army pushes ahead with a liberation operation there.
The Wednesday talks fell apart as sources said a main cause of the halt was the reluctance of militants to hand over their heavy-duty arms all at once, as demanded by Russia.
Meanwhile, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group based in London which advocates anti-government militants, said that government attacks on militant positions in Dara’a and Quneitra came to a stop following militants' announcement for the resumption of the talks.
Syrian army soldiers managed to establish full control over a strategic town in Dara’a, as they seek to put an ultimate end to the presence of militants in the eastern and southeastern sectors of the province.
Earlier on Thursday, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that government forces advanced towards the Dara'a al-Balad residential area of Dara’a, located about 13 kilometers north of the border with Jordan, where militants affiliated to the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, Takfiri terror group are positioned.
Syrian army soldiers then entirely recaptured the town of Saida, after fierce clashes with militants and driving the Takfiris out of a Syrian Air Defense Force base southeast of the town.
Reports on Thursday indicated that militants in Busra al-Sham town, one of the most strategically important strongholds of militants in southern Syria, had started surrendering their heavy weapons and military hardware to government forces.
“Thanks to the efforts of Russian officers, militants in Busra al-Sham have handed over a battle tank, an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) and an artillery gun to government forces. Earlier, they had handed over two other IFVs,” said a Syrian military source on Thursday.
Your Comment