After Two Month Siege, Rebels Seize Deraa Jail

In what will amount to a morale boost for Syrian rebels, groups in Deraa province said they seized its central prison Wednesday, freeing prisoners held there by the government.

The Daily Star reports that the attack “was also notable for being entirely the work of the rebel Free Syrian Army, without the usual participation by Islamist militias or al-Qaida affiliate the Nusra Front. The prison, in the Gharz region 10 kilometers east of Deraa, had been under a rebel blockade for 55 days, activists and media reports said.

“An independent media activist from the region, using the name Moatasim, told the Daily Star that the storming of the prison represented a ‘victory – not a big victory – but important for morale.’ He said the facility contained 294 prisoners and detainees, but added, ‘we expected that many, many more people would have been inside” the multistory buildings in the complex. Unfortunately, we were also expecting to free female detainees, but it appears that all of them had been transferred out.’”

Syrian Official Casts Doubts on Geneva Talks, Says Assad Won’t Go

Sam Dagher of the Wall Street Journal reports that Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Makdad said that if Western backers continue to push Assad to step down, the government might not continue with peace talks.

In an interview with the Journal, Makdad “indicated his regime had the backing of longtime ally Russia in its stance on the Geneva talks,” Dagher writes. “The stalled negotiations are one of the major Middle East initiatives now clouded by uncertainty as a standoff escalates between Russia and the U.S. over Moscow’s plan to annex Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. The bitter fallout has raised doubts about the viability of recent U.S.-Russian diplomatic cooperation on Syria.”

“The issue of [Assad] relinquishing power is now behind us and this is a flagrant interference in Syria’s internal affairs,” Makdad said. “This is completely finished and we are not ready to discuss it at all, at all.”

Gains Reported in Removing Syrian Chemical Supplies

The New York Times reports that half of the Syrian government’s chemical weapons cache has been removed from the country.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is collaborating with the U.N. to oversee the weapons’ destruction, said in a statement that “two shipments, including some of the most lethal chemicals from the stockpile, were delivered on March 14 and 17 to the Syrian port of Latakia, where they were transferred to cargo ships, making a total of 10 exported shipments so far, [and that] the latest movements increased the portion of chemicals that have now been removed from Syria for destruction outside the country to more than 45 percent.

“The statement was the first progress report on the Syrian government’s commitment to getting rid of the chemicals since the Syrians proposed a revised timetable for exporting them early this month. The timetable’s revision, which calls for the job to be finished by the end of April instead of Feb. 6 as originally planned, came after Syria missed deadlines in the destruction effort and was widely criticized internationally.”

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NY Times: U.N. Stymied in Efforts to Take Aid to Syrians