Rebel fighters from ‘Jaysh al-Sunna’ gesture as they ride a vehicle in Tel Mamo village, in the southern countryside of Aleppo, Syria. (photo credit: KHALIL ASHAWI / REUTERS)
X ![]()
Dear Reader,
As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
As one of our loyal readers, we ask you to be our partner.
For $5 a month you will receive access to the following:
- A user uxperience almost completely free of ads
- Access to our Premium Section and our monthly magazine to learn Hebrew, Ivrit
- Content from the award-winning Jerusalem Repor
- A brand new ePaper featuring the daily newspaper as it appears in print in Israel
Help us grow and continue telling Israel’s story to the world.
Thank you,
Ronit Hasin-Hochman, CEO, Jerusalem Post Group
Yaakov Katz, Editor-in-Chief
UPGRADE YOUR JPOST EXPERIENCE FOR 5$ PER MONTH Show me later Don’t show it again
Residents in southern Syria reported an increasing crescendo of airstrikes allegedly by Russian aircraft on Thursday, a day after the Syrian rebels in the south walked away from surrender negotiations.
Since mid-June, the Syrian regime and its Russian ally have swept the rebels from a swath of territory, pushing them towards the Jordanian border and Israel’s Golan Heights. More than 300,000 people have fled the advance. The Syrian regime and Russian air force have been careful not to carry out airstrikes within 10 kilometers of the 1974 ceasefire line on the Golan.
On Wednesday the Syrian rebels said they walked away from negotiations with Russia about a ceasefire. The rebels said they had come to discuss a ceasefire but found themselves presented with “humiliating” terms, including that they hand over their weapons and stop fighting.
The rebels in southern Syria met the Russian delegation in an undisclosed town in southern Syria somewhere near Dara’a. Dara’a is one of the main cities that the Syrian rebellion began in during the 2011 Arab Spring and it therefore holds special significance. It is also just a few kilometers from the Jordanian border.
Although the rebels have been chased out of many towns and villages in the last weeks, they have held on to part of Dara’a and a corridor that runs along the Jordanian border and then up towards the Golan.
After the rebels rejected what amounted to surrender terms, the airstrikes by Russia and the Syrian regime increased dramatically on Thursday. Of special importance is the town of Tafas, which links the rebel areas near the Golan with the areas near Jordan. It was hit by “tens of airstrikes” according to residents.
Rumors online have indicated that Russia is playing a central role in what comes next. This is partly because Russia is a party to the ceasefire in the south with the US and Jordan. It is also because Russian President Vladimir Putin is supposed to meet US President Donald Trump this month and has also invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Moscow.
Any deal in the south could see the deployment of Russian observers similarly to what happened in northern Syria. Jordan wants the fighting to stop as hundreds of thousands of refugees are now at the Jordan border and the UN has pressured Amman to open the border. Amman has said it won’t allow more refugees in, as it already hosts around a million people who have fled conflict in the region.
Comments are closed.