"God willing, tomorrow will be a suitable day to resume this operation"
(Adds monitoring group, activist quotes, state media)
BEIRUT, Sept 19 (Reuters) - The governor of Homs pledged on Monday to pursue the planned evacuation of several hundred Syrian rebels from their last foothold in the city, despite opposition from insurgent groups and the near collapse of a wider ceasefire.
Rebels earlier warned that the evacuation plan, which they say would amount to the government forcibly displacing people after years of siege and bombardment, would sink the fragile Syria ceasefire.
That truce came close to collapse later on Monday. It was unclear how this would affect an evacuation. Similar deals have been carried out even as fighting between government and rebel forces has continued through much of the country.
The district of al-Waer in Homs, home to 60,000 people, is besieged by the government, which has sought to conclude local agreements with rebels to win back full control of strategic areas in western Syria.
Homs Governor Talal Barazi said "logistical obstacles" had delayed the evacuation of some 300 rebels who had been expected to leave al-Waer on Monday, but he was confident it would go ahead successfully.
"This is the fifth time that fighters and their families are evacuated from Homs," he told journalists there. "All previous evacuations were successful, and this one will be too."
The postponed plan would be implemented in cooperation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the United Nations, he said.
Rebels from al-Waer have previously been given safe passage to the insurgent-dominated province of Idlib in northwestern Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the main reason behind the delay was that the route to Idlib was not safe. "Neither the U.N. nor the regime was able to secure the route," the Britain-based monitoring group said.
Syrian state media blamed the delay on the United Nations, saying it had blocked the plan citing bogus security issues.
Osama Abu Zeid, an opposition acivist in al-Waer, said it was highly unlikely the evacuation would take place on Tuesday.
A negotiations committee there agreed with the government last year that the United Nations would be present, he said. People refused to evacuate otherwise. "We have no trust in the regime," Abu Zeid said. "That's why people won't leave."
He said that those expected to evacuate included some rebels, but were mostly people in need of medical attention, including cancer patients and amputees.
In a statement on Sunday, however, rebel groups warned the United Nations against "sponsoring or carrying out" evacuation deals. Rebels say the al-Waer plan is part of a government strategy to oust civilians from areas that have been held by the opposition through the more than five-year-old civil war.
Explaining what had caused the delay, Barazi said earth berms and concrete barricades needed to be removed from the exit route to ensure rebels reached their final destination. He said this could be Idlib province or the border with Turkey.
The Syrian army had ensured all necessary conditions for the convoy's safe passage, he added. "I don't think there are big obstacles," Barazi said. "God willing, tomorrow will be a suitable day to resume this operation." (Reporting by Marwan Makdesi in Homs, Ellen Francis in Beirut and Ali Abdelatti in Cairo; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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