The Military Council of Damascus City and its countryside announced that it hadn’t been contacted by any party regarding the de-escalation agreement in the Eastern Ghouta region, which was agreed upon by the Syrian opposition and the Syrian government in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Saturday.
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In an official statement, the Military Council welcomed any international efforts to stop the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) operation in Eastern Ghouta which began more than a month ago.
However, the council considered that this agreement is one-sided, even if it the Russian Defense Ministry was part of it.
According to the official statement of the council, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) doesn’t expect that the SAA will respect the agreement. The council thanked FSA groups in southern Syria in the official statement for their insistence on reaching ceasefire agreement in Eastern Ghouta.
On Sunday, Eastern Ghouta witnessed relative calm, as clashes continued only in the Ayn Tarma area and Jobar district east of Damascus.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) announced that its fighters targeted a SAA BMP-2 vehicle in Ayn Tarma.
Separately, Syrian Air Force warplanes targeted HTS positions in Ayn Tarma with more than 10 air strikes.
It should be noted that none of the parties mentioned that the agreement includes all areas of Eastern Ghouta, and the agreement wasn’t expected to include the Ayn Tarma area and the Jobar district because of the presence of HTS there. HTS is a terrorist group and excluded from the agreement.
Ceasefires are a joke…
There can only be peace when one side has been wiped out(in this case, the terrorists of course)…
The Joke is the Damascus City Military council who are not important enough to know the workings of the deal and probably made up of of a small group of people. They must really off the radar to not know the agreement because it excludes HTS and Faylaq al Rahman group as well.
All this includ or exclud nobody is buying it. It’s basically childish. they are grown people and won’t buy crap like that
The situation is more complex in East Ghouta, MMM.
The remaining FSA fighters there (the “Military Council of Damascus City”, I guess) has pretty much given up, and the civilians there are exhausted They want the green bus deal, but can’t say so with HTS head-choppers right next door. So the ‘official’ MCDC statement makes them look clueless about the ceasefire, but they are abiding by it (and so is the SAA) so far.
The FSA will hopefully wait until HTS has been wiped out by the SAA in Jobar and Ayn Tarma and then make a deal with the SAA. If the FSA goes on the attack, then the SAA will just conduct business as usual. It’s not like the FSA can use the opportunity to resupply or rearm – they are finished. It’s only a matter of how long they want to fight a losing battle.
The SAA may not have high hopes for the ceasefire, but they can concentrate on HTS in Jobar and Ayn Tarma (not part of the ceasefire) as long as it holds. If it goes as planned, then the chances for working out a deal with the FSA for the rest of East Ghouta increase dramatically.
Starting to look like the grass isn’t greener on the other side either(Idlib) lol.
Im surprised they dont do their major operational moves at night in areas like Ghouta where jihadis with limited night vision would be at a far larger disadvantage.