Roundup: Talks underway to bring peace to last rebel-held district in Syria's Homs: source

Representatives of the Syrian government and opposition are negotiating the evacuation of as many as 3,000 rebels from the last rebel-held neighborhood in Syria's central city of Homs, a well-informed official source told Xinhua.

The negotiations are currently going on to settle the situation in the troublesome sprawling district of al-Waer, the last rebel stronghold west of Homs city and home to around 75,000 people, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The talks between rebel commanders and officials of Homs province aim to end the armed manifestation there by securing the evacuation of 3,000 rebels from the neighborhood into rebel-held areas in the northern province of Idlib.

"The evacuation of the rebels will be on batches, the first is for radicals who refuse the truce with the government. Those, whose number reaches 700, will be taken to Idlib or northern Hama, while the rest, who are less extreme, are going to be evacuated later," the source said.

The deal would also see the release of detainees from government jails and the entry of food and aid convoys to the besieged neighborhood, the source said, adding that the neighborhood will also see a rehabilitation of government institutions and infrastructure.

"The chances of concluding a deal today are high," the source said, adding that the talks are supervised by the United Nations.

The underway efforts are the latest to reach a settlement there after several previous unsuccessful attempts.

The talks came just a day after a total of 120 rebels evacuated from a western Damascus neighborhood to rebel-held areas in Idlib, under a new deal concluded with the Syrian authorities under UN supervision.

The evacuated rebels left the district of Qudsayah along with their families and weapons to the Idlib province, Maher Murhej, an opposition activist and head of the Syrian Youth Party, told Xinhua.

He said the deal could be a prelude to similar agreements with the rebels in areas surrounding the capital, adding that the deal reflected a flex stance from the government and the rebels, who have released some Syrian soldiers they were kidnapping in Qudsayah as part of the deal.

Qudsayah has been recently besieged by government troops after the militants inside broke a previous truce.

Meanwhile, the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said the evacuated rebels were the first batch to leave Qudsayah.

The recent deals came less than a month after world powers agreed on the need to establish a cease-fire in Syria during talks in Vienna, Austria.

The UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is working currently on establishing working groups from the opposition and the Syrian government to discuss political ways to help end the crisis. Endit