Backed truce deal reached for 2 front lines in Syria

The Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah has confirmed a six-month truce in fighting against anti-government rebels in two areas of Syria.

The first stage also sees a ceasefire in the areas and a truce for the next six months.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday welcomed Russia’s military buildup in Syria in support of common ally President Bashar Assad, saying it was the failure of a US-led campaign against Islamic State that had forced Moscow’s hand.

“We know and understand that the Syrian army and Syria in general is in such a state that it isn’t up to opening a second front – it is trying to maintain its own statehood”, he said in comments broadcast on Russian television. The insurgents against Assad are largely Sunnis, including foreign fighters from around the region and elsewhere who joined the war.

“I made clear our policy to try to prevent through various means the transfer of lethal weapons from Syria to Hezbollah, which is actually done at the direction of Iran”, said Netanyahu, who spent just a few hours in Russian Federation for the meeting before flying immediately back to Israel. He added that the deal allows for humanitarian supplies and goods to reach the two villages by road for those remaining behind.

However, rebel factions, including the militant Islamist Ahrar ash-Sham and Al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, tightened their joint siege of Kefraya and Foua to put pressure on Iran and Hezbollah to ease the offensive against Zabadani.

Spokeswoman Jessy Chahine said Friday that the United Nations had facilitated contacts between the different parties but would not elaborate on the deal. He pointed out that “the Iranian nuclear deal is also a factor, as the Americans thought they could convince Iran through negotiations to bargain over Syria, but this has also ended”.

Under the conditions of the deal, rebels besieged by government forces in the town of Zabadani would be given safe passage to other rebel-controlled areas. “It’s necessary to cooperate with ground troops and the Syrian army is the most efficient and powerful ground force to fight the IS”.

But he suggested the transfer would not be permanent, adding that the insurgents are ready to reverse it by force.

“If we would feel a need for that we would study it and ask for it”, he said according to the official Syrian news agency SANA.

“The vehicles have been ready since the morning but no one has moved yet”, Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said by telephone.