Daraa: 60 Regime violations to ceasefire agreement in two months

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime's artillery and mortar rounds have pounded opposition-held areas in southern Daraa city despite of the 2-month-old Cessation of Hostilities agreement, local activists said on Friday.

Omar al-Masalmeh, Daraa-based activist, said the Old City of Daraa has has been by mortar shells on Friday as well al-Manshiya neighborhood was also under gunmashine fire.

Since a Russian-U.S. brokered ceasefire on July 9 southern Syria, local monitoring groups document more than 60 violations that killed at least 18 people.

Meanwhile, the opposition groups are resisting Jordanian pressure to hand control of Nasib border crossing back to the regime, a step that would be a major boost for Bashar al-Assad and undermine rebel groups in southwestern Syria, Reuters reported.

Talks over reopening the Nasib crossing have gathered pace since the ceasefire in July brought relative calm to southern Syria, the first peacekeeping effort in the war by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

Jordan, which hopes to revive a once flourishing trade route and encourage Syrian refugees to return, has plenty of leverage over the rebels: many of the opposition groups in southern Syria depend on logistical support from the staunch U.S. ally.

But rebel groups which seized control of the crossing in 2015 have so far resisted proposals for a return of Syrian government authority to Nasib, even in the form of civilian officials with no Syrian army presence.

The possibility of the crossing being reopened underlines just how far the scales have tipped in favor of Assad, who is steadily winning back territory with Russian and Iranian help, forcing neighboring states to rethink their policies.

“The presence of any regime employee is like restoring legitimacy to a worn-out regime against which the Syrian people rose up,” said Adham al Karad, a Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel commander who led battles in Deraa city against the army.

The Syrian army and allied militia are steadily seizing more and more of the Jordanian frontier from insurgents. But while the regime is gaining ground at the Jordanian border, key crossings to Turkey and Iraq remain outside its control.