BICOM

Buses have entered the town of Quneitra, near the Israeli border, to begin evacuating the rebels to northern Syria who have agreed to surrender to the regime, according to Syrian state media.

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, says the surrender agreement “stipulates the departure to Idlib of terrorists who reject the settlement” while allowing those who wish to remain to “settle” their status with the authorities. It also permits the return of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s rule to Quneitra province in southern Syria. The agreement was confirmed by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which said the deal “provides for a ceasefire, the handover of heavy and medium weapons and the return of government institutions in the area”.

According to a copy of the final agreement sent to Reuters by a Syrian rebel, the deal includes a provision for Russian military police to accompany two Syrian army brigades “to the ceasefire line and the demilitarised zone” that has been in place on the Golan Heights since 1974. There would be further negotiations on a deadline for handing over medium and heavy weapons, according to the rebel source. The military offensive near the Golan frontier has been a particularly sensitive issue for Israel, which is concerned that the Syrian regime would utilise its Shia militias and Iranian-backed forces to recapture the area.

In a BICOM paper published this week, Senior Visiting Fellow Michael Herzog explains that one of Israel’s conditions for agreeing to the return of Assad’s army to the border area is “the full implementation of the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement, which was reached following the 1973 Yom Kippur war”.

This agreement established a buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli military forces about 80km long and between 0.5 and 10km wide, as well as additional areas with limitations on troops and weapons. Israel would also like a full redeployment of the UN Disengagement Observer Forces (UNDOF) which monitored the agreement. Due to the civil war in Syria, some governments withdrew their forces and UNDOF left posts in the buffer zone.

The surrender agreement follows a regime offensive which began on 19 June to retake the remaining areas under rebel control in the southwestern region. This week, an intense bombing campaign began the on southern town of Nawa, killing at least 14 people. Nawa, home to at least 100,000 people, is the largest urban centre still controlled by rebels in Daraa province.