Damascus: rebel leader urges to fight Islamists against truce with regime

Reporting by Abu Abdullah Al Hourani; Translation by Yusra Ahmed

DAMASCUS (Zaman Al Wasl)- The Shariah Authority in Southern Damascus has blamed the reconciliation team in Yalda, Babila and Beit Saham for solely signing the second stage of reconciliation with the regime last Thursday.

This unexpected act took place only two days following the promises of the team for not signing any initiative or agreement with the regime without consulting the Shariah Authority and the Jihadists Shura Council.

Al-Watan newspaper published details of the agreement, which included a complete normalization with the regime, besides reconciliation with the sectarian militias in al-Sayida Zainab.

Media surfaced photos of Sheikh Saleh al-Khatib al-Yaldani during his sincere meeting with some Shiite figures and the Governor of Southern Damascus, besides some members of regime’s security forces.

All those developments shocked many people especially residents who have many relatives killed by those sectarian militias.

Moreover, the agreement included promises to fight “expiatory” like al-Nusra front and the Islamic State, added to forming a special force of men from the area to be supervised and trained by the National Defence Forces aiming to protect the reconciliation and fight anybody tries to spoil it. In return, regime freed 7 detainees from the area as a sign of goodwill.

Zaman al-Wasl’s correspondent in Damascus revealed that Shura Council and other FSA’s leaderships had held an urgent meeting to discuss the consequences of the reconciliation agreement, and the reconciliation team was invited, but it did not attend. The meeting resulted in a very strong statement announced cancelation all the previous agreements with the regime, besides calling Sheikh Saleh al-Khatib for investigation. The statement insisted on the unity of the signatories’ decisions and obligation for consulting and getting permissions of the Shariah Authority and the Jihadists’ Shura Council for any agreement with the Syrian regime beforehand.