Date: Mar 31, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Regime gives Ghouta rebels three-day ultimatum BEIRUT: The Syrian government has given a final, three-day ultimatum to the largest rebel group in the enclave of Eastern Ghouta to leave the last remaining rebel-held town in the area, state TV reported Thursday. The 72-hour deadline began Wednesday night, the report said. Talks have been deadlocked for days between Jaish al-Islam, which controls the Syrian town of Douma, just outside Damascus, and Russian mediators. The Syrian government and its Russian backers have insisted that Jaish al-Islam members leave the area for northern Syria. The rebel group’s spokesman Ammar al-Hassan said the government is insisting that the group’s fighters move north but that they have rejected such demands. Pro-government media have warned of an all-out offensive on Douma if the rebels don’t withdraw. Thousands of rebels have accepted Russian-brokered deals to leave other parts of the enclave in the past week with their families on government-supplied buses, giving them safe passage to other insurgent-held areas. Tens of thousands of other civilians have stayed behind to accept state rule, while tens of thousands more have fled across the front line. The collapse of rebel control in Eastern Ghouta after one of the fiercest campaigns of the 7-year-old war has delivered the insurgents their worst defeat since they were driven out of Aleppo in 2016. Speaking at a weekly briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the “counterterrorist operation” in Eastern Ghouta had nearly finished, RIA state news agency reported. She gave no details of negotiations with the rebels still holding out. In Moscow, the Russian defense minister said Syrian rebels attempted to put dozens of suicide attackers on buses evacuating residents from Damascus’ eastern suburb. Sergei Shoigu said during Thursday’s meeting with visiting United Nations envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura that the Russian military received a tip about the planned attacks from locals in Eastern Ghouta and had disarmed the would-be attackers. Shoigu said the military found seven belts packed with explosives for suicide missions Monday, another 32 Tuesday and nine Wednesday. He also said that 130,000 civilians and 11,000 rebels have so far left Eastern Ghouta over the past two weeks, including 5,300 fighters and members of their families who left the town Arbin for the northern province of Idlib Wednesday. Shoigu added that refugees could begin returning to the enclave Sunday or Monday.