1st LD: Agreement reached to evacuate rebels from Syria's Homs city

Negotiations between the rebels and the Syrian authorities have been concluded on Tuesday with an agreement to evacuate the rebels from their last stronghold in Syria's central city of Homs, a well-informed source told Xinhua.

Governor of Homs Talal Barazi has concluded a final agreement with the armed rebels in the district of al-Waer, west of Homs, on allowing the evacuation of the rebels as of next week, the official source told Xinhua.

The deal also allows for the rebels who want to remain in Homs to surrender themselves to the authorities and clear their records, the source added.

The authorities will start settling the records of the armed men who want to return to their normal lives "in rebuilding their homeland and protecting Syria," the source added.

Earlier in the day, a source told Xinhua that representatives of the Syrian government and opposition were negotiating the evacuation of as many as 3,000 rebels from the last rebel-held neighborhood in Homs.

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 source said the negotiations and the implementation of the agreement 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