The Free Syrian Army soldiers admit they won’t be able to claim capital Damascus without foreign support, but their aren’t counting on it anymore as the US and the Gulf states are “liars,” RT’s Maria Finoshina reports from rebel-held area in Syria.
The Russia-US deal has led to cancellation of US airstrikes
against the targets of Syrian government and the Arab states
holding back on their aid to the opposition forces.
But not everybody in the country wants a peaceful solution to the
2.5-year-long civil war as the rebels have accused their foreign
backers of not keeping their promises.
“The security belt that the regime created around Damascus is
huge and to target it we need many fighters and advanced weapons,
and to be honest we don’t have such kind of weapons,” Oraba
Idriss, who defected the government forces to become the 1st
Maghaweer brigade commander for the Free Syrian Army, told RT.
“But what we can do – is launch operations here and there to
release the pressure of the regime.”
Last month's attack on Maaloula, in the south-west of the
country, could’ve been part of that strategy as the ancient,
mostly-Christian settlement, remains the only obstacle preventing
the fighters from two large Syrian battlegrounds uniting.
The village, which is loyal to the Syrian authorities, lies in a
valley surrounded by mountains on the way from Homs to Damascus
and is surrounded by villages held by the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
FSA fighter, Abu al Hasan, said the rebels have the road leading
to Damascus in their sight, but they “can’t reach it because
of Maaloula”.
The militants can hold back the government troops, but they seem
unable to make their own advances. In order for that to change
the opposition needs more money from Gulf countries and American
military aid, Abu Mohammad, an FSA fighter, who was injured in
Maaloula, claims.
“If they [the US] strike with just ten rockets the regime of
Bashar al Assad will fall by itself,” he said.
The US had considered “limited military action” on Syrian
military bases over August's chemical attacks they blamed on the
forces of president Bashar Assad, but changed track after Russia
pushed Washington to agree on a peaceful way forward.
Moscow proposed to hand the Syrian chemical weapons arsenal to
international inspectors for destruction, with the initiative
receiving full backing from the country’s authorities.
Despite preserving “non-lethal” aid to the rebels such as
food and medicine, the Americans pulled its warships back from
Mediterranean and put its tomahawks on hold.
The joint mission of international experts from the UN and the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons , which is
now working in the country, has finished inspecting of over 50
per cent Syrian chemical sides.
Russia and US continue their joint effort to stage the Geneva-2
conference, which is aimed at bringing the sides of the Syrian
conflict to the negotiations table and find a diplomatic
solution.
The international peace efforts became a huge disappointment for
the rebels, who began losing faith in their foreign backers.
“All of them are liars, all of them. I don’t know how I can
express it better and we are not hoping anything from them [US
and Gulf states]. Whatever they say we don’t believe it,” Abu
Mohamamd stressed.
With army forces struggling to combat fighters hidden in the
mountain and militants helpless in the face of government’s
tanks, artillery and aviation, Syria is at a deadly impasse,
which will only see the conflict’s 100,000 death tall rising.
On Saturday, a suicide blast near Damascus ha skilled at least 16
government soldiers have been killed in a suicide blast near
Damascus, the militant al-Nusra Front believed to be responsible
for the attack.