Hezbollah and Iran are key military backers of the embattled regime of President Bashar Assad.
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A Syrian rebel group said Saturday that a cease-fire negotiated with the Syrian army and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, had collapsed and fighting had resumed in the strategic northern town of Zabadani and two nearby villages. Insurgent shelling of the two villages early on Wednesday killed a child and wounded 12 more people, state TV reported.
He said negotiations on the deal were continuing despite the ceasefire faltering.
Syrian officials and local reports said that Turkey and Iran helped broker the truce in Zabadani, as the Turks voiced the demands of the Ahrar al-Sham rebel movement and the Iranians obviously covered the side of the Syrian government, in unprecedented mediation that reflected a new approach by regional players.
Government forces and allies were shelling rebel positions in Zabadani, Abdel Rahman said.
While the information could not be independently verified, a resident from Fuaa who wished to remain anonymous confirmed to AFP that the fighting had resumed.
The truce stipulated that Hezbollah and the Syrian Army would halt their attacks on Zabadani, in the southern Qalamoun region, in exchange for the rebels halting their offensive on Kfraya and Foua in northwestern Idlib province.
Sources on both sides had said talks had been aimed at securing a withdrawal of rebel fighters from Zabadani and a withdrawal of citizens from the two villages.
“The talks are ongoing, but there are breaches in the ceasefire”, said Abdel Rahman, director of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, citing sources close to the talks.
The truce agreement between rebel groups and pro-regime factions, including Lebanon’s militia Hizbullah, came into effect early on Wednesday morning.
Before its expiry on Saturday morning, intensive negotiations had been under way for an extension of the ceasefire and a full deal.
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“The reason [the negotiations] collapsed is we wanted the release of 40,000 prisoners from government jails, and the Iranians rejected it”, Ahrar al-Sham spokesman Ahmed Qara Ali told Reuters.
