(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime may resort to military force in the eastern Qalamoun region near Damascus as a last option to close the region’s file similar to other areas in Damascus suburbs that have faced the same fate, residents say.
Local activist Namir al-Diri told Zaman al-Wasl that the regime is currently trying to create the appropriate conditions that would increase public pressure on the negotiating committees that have been attending semi-periodic meetings with the regime delegations in recent months. The meetings aim at reaching an agreement to establish a mutual ceasefire between the two sides in the region.
Al-Diri explained that the regime has many agents in the cities and towns of the region who actively work to influence the public opinion in the region and incite residents against the opposition factions operating in the region. The agents also seek to influence public opinion against any military action that might lead to regime forces launching a military campaign against the region.
About the latest rumors circulating over the last two days, al-Diri clarified that the rumors are part of the psychological warfare that the regime pursues in its dealings with areas beyond its control. The regime's agents took the sharp tone the regime delegation recently adopted in its messages to the negotiating committees as an excuse to say that the regime is placing the region’s people before two options, either war or surrender based on the regime’s terms.
“This is tone is not new to the residents. The regime's delegation has repeatedly threatened and promised the region’s representatives of a fate similar to what happened in al-Tall, and the villages of Wadi Barada, al-Qaboun, and others,” al-Diri said.
He pointed out that all the people of eastern Qalamoun are well aware of what the regime and its puppets seek to achieve from putting out the revolution in these areas or displacing it to other areas which the regime will deal with at a later time. At the same time, he expressed surprise that the regime has not carried out the repeated threats it has issued against the region over the past seven months.
Abu Fawaz, a retired teacher who lives in the region, believes that psychological warfare is not limited to spreading rumors that affect the social fabric and civil peace in the cities and towns of al-Qalamoun, but extends to affecting the economic and daily lives of civilians living in opposition controlled areas.
Abu Fawaz said to Zaman al-Wasl that at this time the regime focuses on psychological warfare that will increase the burden of the people of eastern Qalamoun who are already burdened from the war especially as they experienced the tragedies of the war early in the Syrian revolution.
He pointed out that the people in the region have been arrested, killed and displaced by the regime forces and a large number of families have no financial support. In addition to these issues, residents suffer due to the continuing economic, social and professional instability in the region since the beginning of 2014.
Local sources said to Zaman al-Wasl that all the rumors promoted by pro-regime media about a dispute between the eastern cities of Qalamoun which prompted them to negotiate separately are false. The sources pointed out that the region’s negotiating committees agreed to attend the negotiating sessions with the regime, provided that the negotiations are run in accordance with the Geneva Convention represented in the process of “reduction of escalation,” in the presence or absence of the Russian delegate.
The same sources confirmed that communication and coordination between the eastern cities of Qalamoun are ongoing. All the factions operating in the region are united to achieve the interests of civilians in eastern Qalamoun, without relinquishing revolutionary principles such as handing over the area or entering a “national reconciliation” process that does not guarantee the most basic rights for the people of eastern Qalamoun as happened in different parts of Damascus suburbs.
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