The political committee responsible for negotiating with the al-Assad regime for a “reconciliation” called for demonstrations in Yalda and Babila south of the capital Damascus on Wednesday April19, 2017. Locals came out to protest the inclusion of these southern towns in the four cities agreement of Madaya, al-Zabadani, Kafarya and al-Fuaa.
The political committee argued that by including these areas in this agreement, these towns’ issue will be shift from being a matter of internal negotiations to become an issue of international negotiations and the future of the area’s residents will be subject to international calculations.
The elders negotiating for the ‘reconciliation’ in the three towns dominated the demonstration. Demonstrators were prevented from chanting any revolutionary slogans or raising the revolutionary flag. Some men who chanted anti-regime slogans were assaulted, but they were allowed to chant against Iran and Hezbollah.
The demonstration started from the al-Karim mosque in Babila town and with demonstrators marching towards the regime checkpoints. When chants against the regime increased, Anas Tawil, one of the negotiators, delivered a speech expressing his rejection of the agreement in total. He called on the regime to complete what he called the “Syrian-Syrian dialogue”.
It must be mentioned that those involved in the negotiations are persons close to the regime who reside in the south of Damascus, and they previously visited the Russian Hmeimem base.
The four cities agreement was reached by the Hezbollah militia and other Iranian militias on the one hand and Jaish al-Fateh on other hand. The four cities agreement calls for the evacuation of the pro-regime Shi’a towns of Kafarya and al-Fuaa in the Idlib governorate, in exchange for ending the siege on the towns of al-Zabadani and Madaya and the evacuation of these towns’ fighters and their families to northern Syria. The agreement also calls for a ceasefire between both sides and the release of detainees. The processes to temporarily evacuate civilians as part of this agreement have begun
