hildren carry portraits of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a gathering to celebrate the capture of the city of Qusayr by Syrian pro-government forces, in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, yesterday.
QUNEITRA CROSSING: Syria’s army recaptured the only Golan Heights crossing on the ceasefire line with Israel yesterday, in another setback for rebels a day after they were blasted out of the strategic town of Qusayr.
As the rebels were driven back out of the southwestern plateau, government troops pursued insurgents who abandoned Qusayr, bombarding a nearby village where they fled to along with wounded civilians.
Qusayr’s capture gives President Bashar Al Assad the upper hand if a US-Russian plan for the first direct peace talks between his regime and its opponents materialises, analysts say.
Russia said that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem would lead his country’s delegation to the “Geneva 2” talks, delayed largely over disagreement in the opposition ranks about who will attend.
The rebels briefly took control of the Quneitra crossing, strategically and symbolically important for its proximity to Israel and Damascus, before being forced out. “The Syrian army has recovered control of the crossing, there are sounds of explosions from time to time but far less than in the morning,” a source said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Israeli army radio said the rebel advance on the plateau was followed by fierce fighting in nearby Quneitra town.
UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous confirmed there had been “incidents” along the armistice line, and described the situation as “very sensitive”.
The crossing falls within a UN-controlled buffer zone. It is the only direct passage between Israel and Syria and used almost exclusively by Druze residents of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights who are allowed to cross over to study, work or get married. Israel seized a large section of the plateau from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1981, in a move the international community never recognised.
In Washington, Senator John McCain said that the US must deepen its engagement in Syria by equipping the rebels or setting up a safe zone to protect the opposition. Failure to show US leadership risks seeing the Middle East descend into “extremism, and war, and despair,” he said after visiting Syria last week to meet rebel leaders.
“The Syrian state is disintegrating in much of the country, leaving vast ungoverned spaces that are being filled by extremists, many aligned with Al Qaeda,” McCain told the Brookings Institution think tank. “They are the best armed, best funded, and most experienced fighters. And every day this conflict grinds on, these extremists are marginalising moderate leaders like the commanders I met last week.” The Free Syrian Army and its commanders seeking to oust Assad are in desperate need of “ammunition and weapons to counter Assad’s tanks, artillery, and air power,” he said. Agencies
