(Zaman Al Wasl) Zaman al-Wasl learnt that al-Waer neighborhood in Homs is witnessing the formation of a civilian negotiation committee formed of 10 people from merchants and intellectuals to renegotiate with the Assad regime.
Zaman al-Wasl’s correspondent in Homs reported from the knowledgeable sources that the members of the new committee will meet with representatives of the al-Assad regime on Saturday August 20.
The meeting comes days after the regime forces escalated their military operation on the besieged neighborhood whose residents are threatened on a daily basis with bombing. The bombing reached its peak on Friday August 19, as the regime used modified missiles which sources among the residents described as “highly explosive cylinders,” in addition to mortar shelling and al-Shilika rockets leading to the injury of over 10 people.
Al-Assad regime officials recently threatened Homs with escalating the attack on al-Waer neighborhood in the event the fighters do not leave the besieged neighborhood.
The neighborhood residents reported from regime checkpoint personnel the threats made by Okab Sakr, the head of a branch of State Security and the regime’s representative in the negotiation with the neighborhood committee, to the effect that they will bring al-Waer down on the heads of its residents if the resistance fighters do not leave their last stronghold in the city of Homs. The checkpoint personnel are promoting giving the residents until Sunday August 21 for them to leave the neighborhood which will become a military area.
The checkpoint sources surrounding al-Waer warned employees and students leaving the city and returning to it on a daily basis that Sunday will be the last day they are allowed to go into and out of the neighborhood.
Knowledgeable sources confirmed that the al-Assad regime is threatening military escalation to pressure the negotiation committee in al-Waer to accept its conditions to continue the agreement stages. The regime and the negotiations committee signed a truce in December 2015 under United Nations sponsorship.
The regime has previously tried to counter the agreement, announcing that it will only commit in principle to revealing the fate of detainees whose names were included in a list of over 7350 detainees sent by the committee to the regime for release. This is considered one of the most important of the agreement clauses which must be executed in the second stage of the agreement.
Based on the agreement, that the first stage includes a ceasefire, the entry of medical and food assistance, the end of the siege on the neighborhood residents, and the exit of a batch of rebels, especially injured persons.
The second stage dictates that detainees will be released, rebels will hand over part of their weapons, and in the third stage the rebels will complete the handover of their weapons and leave the neighborhood following the release of another batch of detainees. The agreement clauses included a condition that no stage is implemented until both parties complete the implementation of the previous stage in its entirety.
The detainee file is considered one of the most complicated clauses included in the agreement signed between the regime and the former negotiation committee whose members the regime arrested due to their refusal to change their stance, before a new negotiation committee was selected to resume the negotiations.
Zaman al-Wasl’s correspondent in Homs reported from the knowledgeable sources that the members of the new committee will meet with representatives of the al-Assad regime on Saturday August 20.
The meeting comes days after the regime forces escalated their military operation on the besieged neighborhood whose residents are threatened on a daily basis with bombing. The bombing reached its peak on Friday August 19, as the regime used modified missiles which sources among the residents described as “highly explosive cylinders,” in addition to mortar shelling and al-Shilika rockets leading to the injury of over 10 people.
Al-Assad regime officials recently threatened Homs with escalating the attack on al-Waer neighborhood in the event the fighters do not leave the besieged neighborhood.
The neighborhood residents reported from regime checkpoint personnel the threats made by Okab Sakr, the head of a branch of State Security and the regime’s representative in the negotiation with the neighborhood committee, to the effect that they will bring al-Waer down on the heads of its residents if the resistance fighters do not leave their last stronghold in the city of Homs. The checkpoint personnel are promoting giving the residents until Sunday August 21 for them to leave the neighborhood which will become a military area.
The checkpoint sources surrounding al-Waer warned employees and students leaving the city and returning to it on a daily basis that Sunday will be the last day they are allowed to go into and out of the neighborhood.
Knowledgeable sources confirmed that the al-Assad regime is threatening military escalation to pressure the negotiation committee in al-Waer to accept its conditions to continue the agreement stages. The regime and the negotiations committee signed a truce in December 2015 under United Nations sponsorship.
The regime has previously tried to counter the agreement, announcing that it will only commit in principle to revealing the fate of detainees whose names were included in a list of over 7350 detainees sent by the committee to the regime for release. This is considered one of the most important of the agreement clauses which must be executed in the second stage of the agreement.
Based on the agreement, that the first stage includes a ceasefire, the entry of medical and food assistance, the end of the siege on the neighborhood residents, and the exit of a batch of rebels, especially injured persons.
The second stage dictates that detainees will be released, rebels will hand over part of their weapons, and in the third stage the rebels will complete the handover of their weapons and leave the neighborhood following the release of another batch of detainees. The agreement clauses included a condition that no stage is implemented until both parties complete the implementation of the previous stage in its entirety.
The detainee file is considered one of the most complicated clauses included in the agreement signed between the regime and the former negotiation committee whose members the regime arrested due to their refusal to change their stance, before a new negotiation committee was selected to resume the negotiations.
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