BICOM

Rebel fighters from the Beit Jinn enclave in the northern Golan Heights have signed a reconciliation agreement with the Syrian regime.

According to Reuters, the remaining rebel fighters from the village of Beit Jinn near Mount Hermon, a few miles east of the Israeli-Syrian border, began to evacuate the area last week after Syrian forces working alongside Druze and Iranian-backed militias encircled them. It is anticipated that the Beit Jinn evacuations would bring the area under complete government control. The area around Beit Jinn is particularly sensitive because of its close proximity to the Israel-controlled Golan Heights.

The Associated Press quoted Syrian state media that some 300 Beit Jinn rebels and their families would be sent to Idlib, the only province in Syria under complete opposition control, and Dara’a.

Reports last week quoted a Syrian military source which claimed that the regime’s Haramoun Regiment, National Defence Forces, Quneitra Hawks, and other military forces will now shift their focus towards capturing Quneitra’s countryside in the region, south of the loyalist stronghold of Hader.

The expanding area of regime control in the area increases the likelihood that Shiite militias backed by Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah will seek to establish a permanent military presence. Israeli military officials have raised concerns over the past several months that in a future war with Hezbollah Israel could face attacks from Syria and Lebanon operating as one unified front.

Israel has warned that the establishment of permanent military infrastructure along its border is a red line and has acted in the past to prevent this.

Instability in southern Syria is also a security concern to Jordan. Jordanian journalist Bassam Badareen told Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that Jordan feels abandoned by its US and Russian allies despite the understandings achieved between them in an agreement signed last month for the establishment of regions to reduce friction in southern Syria.