Syrian media outlets accuses Qatar of threatening ceasefires

CAIRO – 7 August 2017: Violent clashes broke out, Monday morning between Rahman Corps, and al-Assad’s forces near Ain Terma, Eastern Ghouta according to Syrian media outlets.

Rahman Corps, considered among the Syrian forced to be affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, refused to join the ceasefires agreed between the opposition and al-Assad regime negotiated and signed in Cairo during the past couple weeks.

“We are still waiting for Rahman Corps to join the agreements so the suffering of the Syrian people will stop. Until then, they are responsible for all the violations in eastern Ghouta and Homs,” said Syria’s “Al-Ghad” (Tomorrow) opposition movement’s chairperson, Ahmed Jarba, in a press conference in Cairo on Saturday.

The Syrian media outlets accused Qatar of backing Rahman Corps, financing and arming them to keep the clashes going, which threatens the ceasefires sponsored by the Egyptian government.

While the opposition militants agreed to sign eastern Ghouta and Homs ceasefires, they face Rahman Corps, who has yet to sign and continue to violate the truce for stopping the long endured shelling.

On July 23, the first ceasefire was announced in the eastern Ghouta region in Damascus, while the second de-escalation deal was announced in an area in the northern Homs countryside on August 3.

Syria's Al-Ghad opposition movement was founded in March 2016 by Syrian National Council member Ahmed Jarba. Recently, the opposition movement signed a ceasefire agreement in eastern Ghouta with the Syrian regime.

Syria’s political situation has been deteriorating since the protests that emerged during the Arab Spring revolutions in 2011, when the opposition created the “Free Syrian Army” to face Assad’s forces. The situation worsened when the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group began interfering in the country in 2014.

“At some point of the Syrian dispute we had to use weapons to defend our country but now there is a chance of getting back to the political solutions,” Jarba said during the press conference.

According to the latest data from the UN Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs, February 2016, about 470,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the war. Some 1.6 million Syrian have been domestically displaced, while the number of refugees has reached 4.8 million people, the data added.