Sources, who asked not to be named, told Alsouria Net that an emergency meeting was held in the city of Al-Sanamayn, including officers from the Russian army and a number of regime officers, such as Gen. Ramadan Ramadan, commander of the Fourth Division, Col. Nizar al-Fanadi, commander of the division’s operations, and Col. Louay al-Ali, head of the military security branch in Suweida.
The same sources revealed that the Russian officers informed those at the meeting of the need to maintain the cease-fire in southwest Syria and for the regime army to comply with the tripartite agreement which was reached at the start of July last year between the United States, Russia and Jordan, that called for the cessation of hostile operations in the south.
The source said that the Russian officers informed Ali of the need to obey the orders issued by the Syrian regime and the instructions pertaining to the agreement that came out of Hmeimeem base, in an apparent reference to rejecting Iranian policies which aim to ignite southern Syria anew.
The sources added that the meeting lasted two hours in the Brigade 110 command under the authority of the Fourth Division, which is the operations center for the division. The Russians informed the regime officers at the end of the meeting that Russia will not intervene with air support in any military operation the regime might advance with Iranians in Syria’s south.
This meeting came after the latest escalation by regime forces, with warplanes targeting villages and towns in the Daraa countryside with more than 20 air raids over the last two days, in addition to artillery and rocket fire on various areas of the south.
Meanwhile, the United States has called for an urgent meeting in Amman to discuss the latest escalation in southwest Syria, and activists circulated a statement said to have been issued by the agreement monitoring center in the Jordanian capital saying that the monitoring center would work to create favorable conditions to restore stability to the de-escalation zone.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
