Damascus---Syria said Tuesday it is ready to offer Palestinians its firepower to support their battle with the Islamic State group in a refugee camp devastated by clashes and aerial attacks.
The deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Yarmuk camp has pushed the UN Security Council to demand greater access to residents trapped between the encroaching IS jihadists and besieging government forces.
The fierce clashes that began on April 1 have ceased, but regime forces continue to drop barrel bombs on the camp, which lies six kilometres (3.5 miles) from central Damascus.
In the capital, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Meqdad met with a delegation from the Palestine Liberation Organisation headed by Ahmad Majdalani.
"Syrian authorities are ready to support the Palestinian fighters in a number of ways, including militarily, to push IS out of the camp," said PLO official Anwar Abdul Hadi, who was at the meetings.
The "Syrian government had used all its efforts to present humanitarian and medical aid to Palestinian refugees and ... it had helped them exit Yarmuk safely," Meqdad said.
"Syria and the PLO are determined to fight terrorism, which has reached Palestinian camps in Syria, notably Yarmuk," he said, quoted by the official SANA news agency.
Speaking after meeting with Meqdad, Majdalani told AFP they had "agreed on the need for a unified position for the Palestinian forces in Syria, in coordination with the Syrian government."
He said there would be continued cooperation between Syrian and Palestinian leaders "to defeat terrorism in Yarmuk".
A meeting among Syria's Palestinian factions is set for Wednesday to discuss a broader consensus.
If achieved, this rapprochement would be significant for Yarmuk, which had seen fierce clashes since the end of 2012 between regime forces and rebels supported by Palestinian groups.
Most of the Palestinian factions in Yarmuk are opposed to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, but IS's arrival there sounded alarm bells in Damascus as it is the closest jihadists had ever been to the capital.
AFP
