(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The Syrian opposition revealed talks currently being held between an armed opposition movement and the Syrian government, mediated by Iran, for a ceasefire in a Homs neighbourhood that could be in effect in a week.
Both sides are negotiating the draft document that will allow the opening of a representative office for Iran at Al-Waar neighbourhood, located in the Old City part of Homs, read a statement by the Damascus-based opposition movement on Sunday.
The office will be tasked with ensuring that the agreement, which includes handing in weapons and releasing prisoners, is upheld.
It also urges that the situation is resolved of wanted individuals, separatists, state employees and expelled students, that routes into the neighbourhood, controlled mainly by government forces, are opened up and that families be able to safely return home with assurances over their safety.
It also offers those unwilling to accept the deal the opportunity to leave the area, which is inhabited by hundreds of thousands of people who have attempted to flee the continuous internal fighting in surrounding areas but are nonetheless the victims of sporadic clashes.
The document will give the army an agreed timeframe during which they will remain in the mainly rebel-controlled area in order to conduct a sweep after which they will withdraw from the neighbourhood along with any heavy artillery present.
The army withdrawal will be followed by the entry of state police forces and security forces, whom the agreement has ensured, will not be carrying out any arbitrary arrests.
The deal comes a short period after the announcement of an agreement which allows the transportation of armed opposition forces present in Old Homs to surrounding areas in the northern countryside of the city under international supervision.
Last month, claims of these talks between armed groups and the government across Syria were announced by the Homs Governor Talal Al-Borazi, who had expressed optimism over a positive outcome.
A similar agreement in 2013 also allowed some 1,400 civilians to exit the area under UN supervision.
The conflict across Syria has entered its fourth year amid a rise in violence and heavy fighting between government forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad and opposition fighters as both sides pin the blame for the fighting and the absence of a political solution on the other.
According to a human rights observatory, the numbers of people killed in the fighting since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011 is estimated at 162,000, along with over three million people displaced externally and another six million externally as a result of the extremely difficult and dangerous living conditions.
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