March 27, 2018
By Tom Perry and Suleiman Al-Khalidi
BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) – Thousands of people left eastern Ghouta for Syrian rebel territory near the Turkish border on Tuesday, the third large group to leave under a deal brokered by Russia to surrender the enclave near Damascus to the Syrian government.
Government forces were also mobilizing around Douma, the last rebel-held town in eastern Ghouta, a war monitor reported, piling pressure on the insurgents holed up inside to cut a similar deal.
The Jaish al-Islam group, which has so far refused to leave Ghouta, said Russia had yet to give an answer to proposals that involve its fighters and civilians staying in Douma, adding that a meeting was expected on Wednesday.
Rebels have been leaving other parts of Ghouta in batches with their families, accepting safe passage to the Idlib region in the northwest after they were beaten into retreat in a fierce assault by the Russia-backed Syrian army.
It marks the biggest defeat for the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad since insurgents were driven from eastern Aleppo in 2016, underscoring his unassailable military position after seven years of conflict.
Some 7,000 people – most of them fighters and their families – left on 100 buses in the early hours of the morning, the monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said. More buses drove into eastern Ghouta ahead of a further evacuation.
“We faced two choices: go to Idlib or make peace with the regime,” said Sakhr Yousef, a 24-year-old fighter with the Failaq al-Rahman faction, as he was preparing to leave eastern Ghouta with his wife and four young siblings.
“Making peace with the regime is very difficult, making peace with those who bombed us with criminal Russia,” he added in a voice message to Reuters, referring to Assad’s main backer in the conflict.
cont ...http://www.oann.com/thousands-more-l...thdrawal-deal/

It's obvious what Assad wants out of this. One has to wonder what exactly do Russia and Hezbollah expect to get out of it?

I think Putin is out of his league playing patty-cake with these Islamists. They're going to bite him in the ass like they do everyone else. He can facilitate them all he wants. He's not one of them.