All Syrian people are returning to the government, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Sunday as he drove himself on a recorded tour of the battle-weary eastern Ghouta neighborhood of Damascus.
In a marked departure from his usual media appearances, Assad was on his way to inspect his troops as the Syrian army appeared close to defeating the last major opposition foothold near Damascus in a major government offensive.
"This proves what we were always saying, that people want the state and that the government is normally the legitimate father and mother of all people, and it is the legitimate side of any military or political process," Assad said on camera.
While visiting Syrian soldiers, Assad also met some of the many thousands of people uprooted during the government offensive.
Syrian state media aired footage and pictures from Assad's tour of the area. "Every tank driver who advances one meter forward has changed the political map of the world," state news agency SANA reported Assad as saying.
Meanwhile, figures close to rebel forces said talks were underway with the aim of reaching an agreement that would see the rebels relocating to other opposition areas or giving up arms, though rebels have publicly ruled out the kind of negotiated withdrawal that helped Assad recover Aleppo, Homs and other areas.
Troops have splintered Ghouta into three besieged zones in one of the bloodiest offensives of the seven-year war, with rebels facing their worst defeat since the battle of Aleppo in 2016.
The Syrian government has sought to drive a wedge between rival rebels who control different parts of eastern Ghouta. By working on separate secret talks with rebels in each region and by applying varying degrees of military pressure, the government's "divide and rule" tactics were beginning to bear fruit, one opposition source said.
"The army advances in recent days have piled pressure on the factions and every party wants to get the best deal possible," the source said without elaborating.
After a morning of calm, shelling and ground battles resumed across eastern Ghouta on Sunday afternoon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.
On Sunday, Failaq al-Rahman, the main rebel group in the southern eastern Ghouta pocket said it was negotiating with a United Nations delegation about a cease-fire, aid and the evacuation of urgent medical cases.
"We are engaged in arranging serious negotiations to guarantee the safety and protection of civilians," said Wael Alwan, Failaq al-Rahman's Istanbul-based spokesman.
"The most important points under negotiation are a cease-fire, ensuring aid for civilians and the exit of medical cases and injured people needing treatment outside Ghouta."
But a general evacuation of civilians and rebels was not on the table, he said.
A number of patients requiring urgent medical attention have been evacuated from the northern pocket and some aid has entered there in recent days. This has not yet happened in the southern pocket.
Sources close to the two main rebel groups – Failaq al-Rahman in the southern pocket and Jaish al-Islam in the northern enclave – have told Reuters discussions were underway for the transfer of Failaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam fighters to opposition held areas in northern and southern Syria respectively.
Also on Sunday, state TV said the Syrian army had given a group of rebels in another pocket, the smaller Harasta area, an ultimatum to withdraw.
An opposition official from Ghouta privy to the negotiations said a delegation had left Harasta and was working out the terms of a deal that would follow previous surrender accords for rebel-held areas subjected to bombardment and siege.
On Sunday afternoon he said there was an agreement in principle and it would be enacted within 24-48 hours.
Local rebels were offered two choices – either to leave to opposition areas in northern Syria or settle their situation and become part of local pro-government militias that would maintain security.
Hundreds of fighters have already turned themselves in during the last 48 hours and have begun observing reconciliation deals with the Syrian government, another rebel source in the area said.
Other terms of the deal would ensure that they handed over their weapons, he added.
