If government and rebel forces in Syria fail to ink a new cease-fire agreement, an escalation of fighting in the south could inspire unrest in other regime territories and send a new flood of refugees into Jordan. Tensions erupted between regime and rebel forces in the southern border city of Daraa on July 29, marking what the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights called the “most violent and broadest clashes in Daraa since it came under regime control.” The Syrian Al-Watan newspaper claimed a military operation had begun against rebel forces, while activists and opposition sources said that rebels had taken military checkpoints and repelled government attacks. Daraa has been in crisis since June 25, when Syrian forces demanded former rebels turn over light weapons under a cease-fire deal signed in 2018. But rebels balked at the prospect, with Syrian forces surrounding the city in an attempt to pressure rebels into...
