Nasrallah: Syria’s steadfastness and backfiring of terrorism prompted change

In exchange, 10,000 Shi’ites, civilians, and wounded progovernment fighters from two villages in northern Idlib province will be allowed to leave, said Abdullah al-Muhaysini, a Saudi cleric living in Syria.

Hassan Nasrallah says a six-month truce has been agreed for rebel-held town of Zabadani and two Shia towns in northwest. Since July, Zabadani has been under siege by the Syrian Army’s 4th Armored Division and fighters from Lebanon’s militant Shiite Hezbollah organization.

If implemented, the agreement would be another rare example of worldwide diplomacy successfully brokering an end to fighting in specific areas in Syria.

“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.

The intervention has given the regime a much needed boost at a time when government loyalists had been losing ground to the opposition, and has been broadly welcomed by Syria, Iran and its allies.

The agreement, reached under the supervision of the United Nations, enforces the withdrawal of militants from the border town of Zabadani, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the talks as saying on Thursday. By increasing wagers in Syria’s four-year controversy, Moscow has asked its Cold War rival to build calm stations doing so.

The Observatory said the six-month truce deal would also include the release of rebel detainees. Turkey and Iran also sponsored the deal, it added.

In comments at the Pentagon, Carter said the Obama administration is concerned that Russian Federation could use the warplanes and other military force it has recently assembled in Syria to attack the Islamic State or the moderate Syrian rebels who are fighting against the government of President Bashar Assad.

Shells apparently fired by insurgents hit the village of al-Foua in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, after rebels blamed government forces for violating the ceasefire by dropping barrel bombs on an area nearby.

The director of the monitoring group, Rami Abdurrahman, also criticized reports of a large-scale population transfer.

“It was very important to come here in order to clarify our position and to do everything to avoid any misunderstandings between our forces”, Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting.