Moadamiyeh: Another rebel-held Damascus suburb being forced to evacuate

A rebel-held southwestern suburb of Damascus is on the verge of an agreement with the Syrian regime to end a four-year siege and aerial campaign, similar to a deal struck last week the neighbouring town of Daraya.

A delegation from the besieged town of Moadamiyet al-Sham (also shortened as Moadamiyeh) met with negotiators from the regime and Russian officers on Tuesday to hash out a forced evacuation deal that would see rebels granted safe passage to the opposition-held northern province of Idlib.

Last week, rebel fighters and their families were evacuated from the town of Daraya just east of Moadamiyet al-Sham, under a deal that gave complete control of the town to the Syrian army.

"It ended with negotiators telling residents of the town that this will be the last meeting until they announce whether they will accept or reject the regime's conditions to the truce," media activist Mohammad Nour told The New Arab.

Nour said the conditions include the total disarmament of rebel fighters, settling the legal status of all Syrian army defectors and rebel combatants, the entry of regime forces into the town and safe passage to northern Syria for residents who agree to the deal.

	Rebels have left the neighbouring town of Daraya [Getty]

He added that should the rebels agree to the deal a joint police force of locals and regime forces will be formed in Moadamiyet al-Sham.

Moadamiyet al-Sham was the site of the infamous August 2013 chemical attack, which left hundreds dead and sparked a US-Russian agreement to strip Damascus of its chemical weapons.

A local source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The New Arab that regime negotiators have threatened the town's delegation with military action if the deal falls through.

"If we reject the truce they have said the next step will be a Russian-Syrian offensive, which will include the evacuation of women and children and the declaration of the town as a war zone," the source said.

The suburb of the capital was an early bastion of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. In mid-2011 rebels took control of the area.

Also on Tuesday, residents in al-Waer, a rebel-held district of Homs city reportedly made a Daraya-style agreement with the regime to evacuate 500 rebels and their families.