Agreement between Tahrir al-Sham and the elders of several villages in al-Ghab Plain

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Country/entity: Syria
Region: Middle East and North Africa
Agreement name: Agreement between Tahrir al-Sham and the elders of several villages in al-Ghab Plain
Date: 9 Jan 2019
Agreement status: Multiparty signed/agreed
Interim arrangement: Yes
Agreement/conflict level: Intrastate/local conflict
Syrian Conflicts (1948 - ) (1976 - 2005) (2011 - )
The agreements relate to three different conflict contexts. Israel-Syria and Syria-Lebanon. The Syrian-Israeli conflict was a key factor for the Syrian intervention during the Lebanese Civil War, with Syrian-backed Palestinian Liberation Army units intervened in 1976 against the Palestinian/Leftist militias. Following a massacre at Tel al-Zaatar that year, Syria was forced to accept a ceasefire at a meeting of the Arab League. However, the Arab League also mandated an Arab Deterrence Force, consisting of mostly Syrian soldiers with token contributions from other Arab League states, thus further legitimizing the Syrian presence in Lebanon. During a second bout of fighting that began in 1989, caused by the formation of rival Lebanese regimes in East and West Beirut, the Syrian-backed regime won and in 1991 the ‘Treaty of Brotherhood, Cooperation and Coordination’ was signed to legalize the Syrian occupation as a means to ensure the security of Syria. Syrian forces were forced to withdraw in 2005 following possible involvement in the assassination of Lebanon’s President Hariri.

Syria-internal. In 2011, domestic upheaval following a wave of protests across the Arab World soon led to violent repression of protestors by Syrian government troops. The violence progressed steadily and by July 2011 the Free Syrian Army (FSA) was formed consisting of defected military units and new recruits. The FSA and rebel umbrella group known as the Syrian National Council represented the first attempt at coordinating rebel factions in late 2011. However, a steady influx of foreign fighters and increased sectarianism radicalised opposition groups, which relied on foreign funding. The nature of the conflict changed drastically in late 2013 as infighting among the opposition groups increased. One of the more significant developments was the split between the al-Qaeda outfits the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS), and Jabhat al-Nusra in early 2014 in addition to the intensified targeting of other rebel factions by ISIS fighters in particular, including the Kurdish Peshmerga, the FSA and other jihadist outfits. Since the summer of 2014, the conflict was further internationalized when ISIS announced the formation of an Islamic state eroding the state line between Iraq and Syria and also in mid-2015 when Russian forces intervened on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad government in Damascus.
Stage: Ceasefire/related
Conflict nature: Inter-group
Peace process: Syrian Local Agreements
Parties: Tahrir al-Sham
Elders of the villages of al-Hawash, al-Hawija, al-Hawiz, al-Hurriyyah, al-Hamra, Bab al-Taqah, and Shariyyah
Third parties: -
Description: Three-point agreement providing for the administrative affiliation of villages to the Salvation government, neutralization and demilitarization of the villages

Agreement document: SY_190109_Agreement between Tahrir al-Sham and the elders of villages in al-Ghab Plain_EN.pdf (opens in new tab) | Download PDF
Agreement document (original language): SY_190109_Agreement between Tahrir al-Sham and the elders of villages in al-Ghab Plain_AR.pdf (opens in new tab)| Download PDF

Local agreement properties

Process type: Informal but persistent process
Rationale: -> Local issues only; no external support mechanism; culture of signing There is no formally established mechanism to support the negotiation between Salafi armed groups. Moreover, this agreement cannot be linked to the national peace process. Yet, it seems that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham choose to solve daily pragmatic issues related to their armed struggle through agreements. Although one cannot speak of a “culture” of singing peace agreements, at least one of the parties is involved (in a non-proactive and non-conscious way) in a persistent practice of signing local agreements. The agreement is related to multiple local level processes in Idlib governorate in late-2018 and early-2019 between opposition groups and local elders.
Is there a documented link to a national peace process?: No
Link to national process: articulated rationale: No link to the national peace process in Syria is mentioned in the agreement, neither it can be inferred from further research. First, the agreement does not involve local governance actors; and the signing parties themselves are not official state representative. Second, a key party to the agreement rejects the national peace process, as it would maintain Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian government in power. Finally, the agreement complements another agreements signed on the same day between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Ahrar al-Sham in the same area. As such, these agreements should be understood in the context of an “intra-religious insurgent groups” conflict where several factions that all oppose Bashar al-Assad engaged in fighting and took some distance from their initial raison d’être in the context of the Syrian civil war.
Name of Locale: al-Ghab Plain
Nature of Locale: Region
GPS Lat/Long (DD): 35.557691, 36.346081
Participant type: Local armed group
Local community/civilian group(s)/civil society organisations
Mediator, facilitator or similar: No mention of mediator or similar

Local issues

Ritual/prayer and process (including use of scripture): Page 1, In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
Grievance List: No specific mention.
Cattle rustling/banditry: No specific mention.
Social cover: Page 1,
Third: Exempting members of Ahrar al-Sham from any rights of the Hayat

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

This is what the two parties agreed on:

First party:

Notables from the following villages:

1-Al-Hawash 2-al-Hawija 3-Al-Howiz 4-al-Hurriyyah 5-Al-Hemawi 6-Bab al-Taqa7-al-Shari’yyah

The second party:

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham

On: First:

These villages are administratively affiliated with the Salvation Government.

Second:

[The villages] To be neutralized from the current fighting.

Third:

Exempting members of Ahrar al-Sham from any rights of the Hay’at

Fourth:

Handover the weapons that belong to Harakat Ahram al-Sham

First party:

Habban Omar Al-Mawas/ Bab al-Taqa [Signature] The second party

Abdul al-Salam Al-A’aqoub/ al-Hurriyyah [Signature] Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham

Nawaz Al-Hassan/ Al-Howiz [Signature] Abu Yousef Al-Hamwi

Muhammad Shehadeh Al-Jassem/ al-Hurriyyah [Signature] [stamp]

-Halim Hussein Al-Hassan/ Al-Howiz [Signature] [Signature]

Abdullah Ahmad Hawas/ Bab al-Taqa [Signature]

Firas Mansour/ -al-Hawija [Signature]