by Daniel Siryoti, Shlomo Cesana, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Palestinian and Syrian rebel sources say that the rebels have taken "full control" of Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk in southern Damascus • Syrian President Bashar al-Assad might relocate his headquarters, split country into two separate entities.
Syria may be on the brink of splitting into two separate entities. A bombed building in Idlib, Monday.
Photo credit: AP  |
A U.S. and Russian-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution to extend a peacekeeping mission in the demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel warns that tensions between the neighbors could escalate as Syria's civil war spills into the area.
The draft resolution, which is due to be adopted by the 15-member council on Wednesday, expresses concern at the presence of the Syrian army, armed opposition groups and unauthorized military equipment in the so-called area of separation.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. Syrian troops are not allowed in the area of separation under a 1973 cease-fire (formalized in 1974). Israel and Syria are still technically at war.
Syria's 20-month civil war recently began to spill over into the zone, which had been largely quiet since the 1973 cease-fire. Stray shells and bullets have landed on the Israeli-controlled side and Israeli troops have fired shells into Syria in response.
"Recent incidents across the cease-fire line have shown the potential for escalation of tensions between Israel and the Syrian Arab Republic, and jeopardize the cease-fire between the two countries," says the draft, obtained by Reuters on Monday.
The draft text proposes extending the U.N. peacekeeping force, known as UNDOF, for six months.
It also agrees with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's "finding that the military operations carried out by the Syrian Arab Armed Forces have affected adversely the efforts of UNDOF to effectively carry out the mandated tasks."
The Security Council has been incapable of taking any meaningful action to end the war. Veto-holding powers Russia and China refuse to condemn Syria's President Bashar al-Assad or support sanctions against him.
Meanwhile, despite condemnations from Palestinian factions and a call by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to leave Palestinians out of the conflict, the Syrian military began surrounding a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus on Monday.
Hundreds of Syrian tanks and armored vehicles, accompanied by thousands of infantry, surrounded the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, where more than 150,000 of Syria's half a million Palestinian residents live. Witnesses stated that thousands fled to the Lebanese border to escape the fighting.
Syrian rebels took full control of the Yarmouk camp on Monday after days of fighting, rebel and Palestinian sources said.
The battle had pitted Syrian rebels, backed by some Palestinians, against Palestinian fighters affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, loyal to Assad's regime.
Many of the PFLP fighters had defected to the rebel side on Saturday, and their leader, Ahmed Jibril, left the camp on the same day, rebel sources said.
All of the camp is under the control of the [rebel] Free Syrian Army," said a Palestinian activist in Yarmouk. He said the clashes had stopped and the remaining PFLP fighters had retreated and joined the government forces massed on the northern edge of the camp.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighter jets carried out six airstrikes in the Hajar Aswad area and the neighboring Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday, killing at least eight and wounding dozens. Other reports suggested that 25 people were killed while taking shelter in a mosque.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem addressed the reports. "We received intelligence that Palestinian refugees were aiding armed terrorists in hiding in their camp. My suggestion to the Palestinians is not to engage in terrorism or help the terrorists," he said.
Arab media outlets reported on Monday that the embattled Syrian president is considering relocating his command center to the Syrian port town of Latakia, an Alawite stronghold. According to the reports, Syria could split into two separate entities, one nation comprised of Syria's minority sects and run by Assad in the west, and a Sunni nation to the east.
Daniel Siryoti, Shlomo Cesana, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6766
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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