“I have informed the [UN] Secretary General [Ban Ki-moon] and the Security Council…that a plan to reconvene here in Geneva the suspended Geneva intra-Syria talks on Monday the 7th of March on the assumption that there will not be any serious reasons to the contrary”. The Syrian government has agreed to the plan.
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A cease-fire in Syria’s civil war that was scheduled to begin at midnight Friday local time is shaky from the start.
But hours before the agreement was set to take place, Syria’s branch of al Qaeda, one of its most powerful Islamist rebel groups, called for an escalation in fighting against the government and its allies.
The mediator of the Geneva 3 peace talks suspended the negotiations on February 3, citing disagreements between the Syrian government and opposition over humanitarian issues.
Hours before the truce brokered by the United States and Russian Federation was to begin, planes unleashed air strikes against rebel-held positions in the suburbs of the Syrian capital and near the northern city of Aleppo. However, the deal will only apply to moderate rebels.
Al-Nusra is a key fighting force around Aleppo and in many other areas, and numerous smaller jihadi groups are allied with it, so doubts remain if the declared truce would lead to any significant reduction in hostilities.
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer, reporting from near the front line in the war south of Damascus, said Friday that Turkey had also weighed in with a caveat; reserving the right to continue fighting Kurdish groups based along its southern border.
It was not immediately clear whether the various sides that signed up to the plan, including Damascus and its ally Russian Federation, as well as a range of insurgent groups fighting against them, were respecting the halt in fighting.
In response to a question on possible airstrikes on the YPG, Kalin said: “If there are threats we will take measures against them as part of our engagement rules”.
Putin said that Moscow was already receiving confirmation from the warring sides that they were willing to abide by the ceasefire and that it would go into effect as planned.
“We are seriously concerned over the future of the ceasefire because of the continuing Russian air raids and ground attacks by forces of Assad”, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in Ankara.
The United States will ramp up its campaign against ISIS “on all fronts” President Obama said Thursday evening – and he added that Russian intervention has made the “human catastrophe” in Syria even worse.
Huddling with his national security advisors in Washington on Thursday, Obama put the onus firmly on the regime and Russian Federation.
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But US President Obama warned both Putin and Assad that the world would be watching.
