Syria army to launch assault on south in ‘days’

London: The Syrian Army will launch a long-anticipated offensive to retake militant-held parts of southern Syria in a “matter of days” if talks with opposition delegates and allied mediators don’t yield progress, an informed military source told Gulf News on Monday.

The prospect of the Syrian Army launching a military operation in southern Syria has alarmed Israel, as the region borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where the Israeli regime operates a network of bases and observation points.

In response to the threat of Iranian forces – either advisers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or Iran-sponsored militias – gaining a presence and possibly militarily entrenching themselves in southern Syria, Israel urged Russia to exclude Iranian forces from such an offensive.

According to various media reports,Iran will play no role in the pending assault as part of a Russia-brokered deal in which Israel promised not to intervene.

There has been no official confirmation of such a deal.

Gulf News has also been unable to independently verify emerging reports of the US agreeing to close its Al Tanf base in exchange for the scaling down of Iran’s military presence in Syria.

Control of the Dara’a Governorate is divided between the Syrian Army and rebel groups, with both maintaining a presence in the provincial capital.

The front has been reasonably quiet for the past few months, with all parties largely following the terms of a local de-escalation agreement which was brokered by Russia and staunch backers of the Syrian opposition.

Government delegates have reportedly been negotiating with opposition groups in the area via Russian and Jordanian mediators for weeks, as they look to score reconciliation and transfer deals to stave off a wider military confrontation.

A similar agreement was reached earlier this year when the army reclaimed the capital’s East Ghouta region—although war planes pounded the area into submission before the deal was reached.

The deal secured in Ghouta saw thousands of militants surrender their positions before being transferred to the northwestern province of Idlib, which currently serves as the Syrian opposition’s main hub.

Dara’a is considered to be the “cradle of the Syrian revolution” as it was the first area to witness pro-democracy protests in 2011, before parts of the province were later seized by militants.

Government forces are set to launch the offensive after a string of victories throughout Syria, with troops, including those from elite units of the Syrian Army, being redeployed to the southern front in recent weeks.

The fight is expected to be relatively swift as rebels do not have the means to combat the superiority of government fighter jets.

However, urban areas will likely pose a greater challenge to the advancing forces, as there is more scope for militants to set up defensive positions and fortifications in such areas.

-Suliman Mulhem is a journalist based in London