Armed opposition factions active in Idlib province refused to discuss the demilitarization zone agreement with Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) group, Special Monitoring Mission’s to Syria sources reported.
According to the reports, a meeting of armed opposition factions took place in Zerba town in Southern Aleppo on September 30th. The meeting was attended by more than 500 commanders and prominent opposition figures, who shared opinions on the agreement reached by Russia and Turkey a week ago.
Among other issues, the participants discussed withdrawal of heavy weapons from buffer zone, possibility of permitting the Russian forces to enter the buffer zone and reopening the Aleppo-Damascus highway.
Sources added that the meeting was the third in the row of similar gatherings of the opposition figures. Representatives of HTS, the most prominent islamist group in Idlib, were notably absent from the meeting. According to the sources, the opposition factions decided to ban the HTS from participating due to aggressive behavior of its members, who detained two people who voiced their support to the agreement during the previous rounds.
On the other hand, sources claimed that in recent days HTS has begun to covertly hand over heavy weapons to Faylaq al Sham, a major Free Syrian Army faction active in Idlib province.
Special Monitoring Mission to Syria (SMMS) 