Deraa’s surrender in Syria impacting in Russia and Iran

Bringing an end to 75-day Assad-regime siege on the Deraa al-Balad, the new ceasefire agreement may finish Syrian rebels. The siege and the subsequent agreement bring an end to an anomalous situation that had pertained in Deraa al-Balad since the area’s reconquest by the regime, Russian and Iranian forces in July 2018.

Long-simmering tensions between the Syrian regime and opposition factions boiled over in Deraa al-Balad. In July forces of Bashar al-Assad launched a major offensive that included street-to-street fighting and artillery shelling inside the city. Opposition forces quickly launched a counterattack, reportedly taking over nine regime-held checkpoints and capturing dozens of Syrian army personnel.

Although, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has reported at least eight civilian casualties and as many as 24,000 individuals displaced as a consequence of the offensive. Local people mentioned that since the end of April, the number of civilian causalities has reached 250. Moscow claims it is trying to mediate a ceasefire, but this effort reportedly fell apart earlier this week, and the shelling resumed. Assad is highly unlikely to be carrying out such an intense campaign near the Israeli and Jordanian borders without Moscow’s consent.

Security Service Director-General Ken McCallum said foreign spies killed, stole technology, sought to corrupt public figures, sow discord and attack infrastructure with potentially devastating cyberattacks.
Since a 2018 nerve agent attack in England targeting former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, MI5 has disrupted hostile power activity that might have resulted in an attempted killing.

However, it can be seen that MI5’s biggest job is still tackling terrorism. Handling it McCallum warned of the dangers emanating from Syria and Afghanistan but is also of the opinion that they need to refocus attention on the threats from state actors such as Russia, China, and Iran.