PLO Reportedly Against Syrian Army Push to Regain Control of Yarmouk Refugee Camp from ISIS

The PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) said on Thursday that it did not endorse any military offensive in the Yarmouk refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, dismissing earlier suggestions by one of its members that it lent support to a joint military operation with the Syrian army against the Islamic State there, Reuters reports.

The situation inside the camp has deteriorated since April 1, when ISIS launched an offensive and took over nearly 90 percent of the camp while regime forces surrounded the area.

The Syrian government said on Wednesday that a military operation was needed to oust the group from the camp.

Speaking after meeting Syria’s Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar, Palestine Liberation Organization official Ahmed Majdalani echoed the view of the Syrian government that the only way to oust the group from the camp was through force.

“What we have agreed with our Syrian brothers and factions is that the options that existed for a political solution were closed by the fighters of Daesh,” said Majdalani.

“The crimes they have committed … left us with no choice except a security one that respects the partnership with the Syrian state,” he added.

On Thursday, the Palestine Liberation Organization issued a statement rejecting Majdalani’s remarks.

“We refuse to be drawn into any armed campaign, whatever its nature or cover, and we call for resorting to other means to spare the blood of our people and prevent more destruction and displacement for our people of the camp,” the PLO said in a statement issued from Ramallah.

Fears remain that such a military operation will only give the Syrian regime additional legitimacy, Newsweek reports.

Recent reports suggest that the regime has intensified barrel bombing and shelling civilian targets within the camp since it was overrun by ISIS.

Deteriorating conditions inside the camp prompted the U.N. on Monday to seek greater access to some 18,000 civilians, including 3,500 children, trapped between intruding ISIS militants and government forces that have besieged the area.

Civilians inside the camp have suffered a two-year government siege as part of a “surrender or starve” tactic of war that has led to chronic food shortages and disease.

U.N. Chief Urges Syria Peace Envoy to Focus on Political Process

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday he had asked his Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura “to focus much more to re-launch a political process” in a bid to end the conflict in Syria, Reuters reports.

“I have asked Staffan de Mistura now to focus much more to re-launch a political process,” Ban told reporters. “I need the full support. There is no military solution. Only a political solution, dialogue, can be an answer to this.”

De Mistura has been working since October to advance a proposal for a local cease-fire – or “incremental freeze zones” – across Syria, starting with the city of Aleppo, in an attempt to halt the fighting and provide humanitarian aid to civilians.

On February 17 the Syrian government indicated it was prepared to suspended aerial bombardment and shelling for six weeks. However, the local freeze proposal has failed to materialize and the Syrian government expelled two key U.N. humanitarian staffers days later. Syrian rebels rejected de Mistura’s proposal, claiming it would only benefit the Syrian government.

Previous peace talks held in Geneva almost a year ago failed to produce results or ongoing momentum. Opposition leaders demanded Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s departure, while the regime insisted that the focus of the negotiation should be on countering “terrorism” – its term for armed resistance to its rule.

Russia, a longtime ally of Assad, hosted meetings in Moscow this week between some of the more moderate Syrian opposition groups and envoys from the government.

ISIS Seizes Opportunity to Make Territorial Gains in Syria

The Financial Times reports on the timing and implications of ISIS’ attack on Yarmouk refugee camp, an offensive that put the group just 6 miles from central Damascus.

Until recently, ISIS was confined mostly to the east of the country. Last week’s attack on Yarmouk from within the capital of Damascus marked the first time the group had encroached westward from its headquarters in Raqqa toward Assad’s seat of power.

“Their choice to move now suggests the group senses fresh opportunity as the military balance in Syria’s four-year civil war shifts once again,” the Financial Times writes.

In recent months the Syrian opposition has made gains against the Assad regime in north and south Syria, most notably in Deraa near the southern border with Jordan.

ISIS’ advance could pose a challenge in Syria as moderate rebel groups are distracted in their fight against the regime and overshadowed by jihadi movements, while the regime has been weakened by recent rebel gains, the Financial Times concludes.

“The fact ISIS suddenly moved now … is about this new trend of the Assad regime weakening. So the rebels are not focused on their own areas, they’re pushing on the regime. Their guard from within is down,” Hassan Hassan, a Middle East analyst who has published a book on ISIS, told the paper.

“The risk now is that the ISIS gains will snowball. As it gains some ground, it gains recruits,” Mr. Hassan warned.

Recommended Reads

• Global Post: Airstrikes. Siege. Starvation. And Now the Islamic State – Welcome to Yarmouk
• The Guardian: Syria: “My Family Called from Idlib. They Wanted my Help to Flee the Fighting.”
• Associated Press: Aid Group Pressures U.S. to Resettle 65,000 Syrian Refugees by End of Next Year
• Associated Press: Russia Hosts Syria Peace Talks, Urges Compromise
• The Economist: The War Against Islamic State
• Agence France-Presse: Little Sign of Progress at Syria Talks in Moscow

Photo Couresty of AP Images