by Our Foreign Desk

TADAMUN (Solidarity) Party leader Mohammad Abu Qassem announced yesterday that a “permanent” ceasefire had come into effect in areas close to the Lebanese border.

The ceasefire affects the north-western Shi’ite towns of Kafraya and Foa and the rebel-held town of Zabadani, as well as the adjacent town of Madaya.

“It’s not only a ceasefire but a permanent solution and settlement to the situation in the Shi’ite towns along with Zabadani and Madaya,” said Mr Qassem.

“It’s an open-ended ceasefire and it’s not temporary,” he added.

The negotiations, which have been taking place between an Iranian delegation representing the Syrian government and the rebel Ahrar al-Sham movement, backed by al-Qaida-linked groups such as the Nusra Front, started months ago.

The rebels wanted Syrian authorities to halt a broad offensive on rebel-held Zabadani and Madaya, while the Iranian and Syrian governments wanted jihadist groups in the north-western province of Idlib to back off from Shi’ite towns, which have been subject to repetitive attacks and suffocating sieges.

Mr Qassem said that he couldn’t spell out further details, but he stressed that it’s more than a ceasefire, noting that it’s “a permanent truce and solution.”

He had been involved in previous truce talks for the same towns, but they broke down in August.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that violent battles had been raging in the past two days near Foa and Kafraya, costing the lives of 66 jihadists and 40 Shi’ite fighters.

At the same time, the Syrian army, backed by Shi’ite Lebanese Hezbollah units, has been on a shattering offensive against the rebels in the cities of Zabadani and Madaya.

Zabadani is the last rebel bastion of the Nusra Front along the Lebanese border.

Human rights activists accused the al-Qaida affiliate at the weekend of having slaughtered 56 Syrian government soldiers after taking control of the Abu al-Duhur airbase earlier this month.

• Syria’s state news agency announced yesterday that at least 14 civilians, including seven children, were killed when rebels shelled the al-Midan neighbourhood in Aleppo, which was once a centre for the city’s thriving Armenian community.