“The only thing that is required is for people to take their fingers off the trigger”.
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An unusual quiet descended on major cities in Syria, said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding there were brief exceptions including some unexplained explosions reported in the north. John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, has warned that Washington is considering a “Plan B” to deal with Syria if the ongoing efforts fail, but has not provided any details.
The Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella opposition activist group, also reported that Syrian troops violated the truce in Daraa.
The cessation of hostilities was announced earlier this week after negotiations between Russian Federation and the United States, both of which have been engaged in airstrikes in the Arab country.
The 15-member council is set to meet as of 2000 GMT to hear a report from United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura and could vote on the measure at that session.
Hours before the Saturday cessation of hostilities comes into force, Obama huddled with his top national security advisors yesterday to plot the way forward and discuss the campaign against the Islamic State group.
The agreement does not include Syrian strikes on Islamic State or the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front.
The truce does not apply to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al Qaeda affiliate the Nusra Front, and the Syrian government and Moscow have said they will not halt combat against those militants.
De Mistura said a task force created by the 17-nation International Syria Support Group would “monitor and check” what has been happening on the ground.
The truce will go into effect at midnight Friday and some 97 rebel groups have said they will abide by it.
“This is a regime that can not be trusted”, al-Masalmeh said.
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told the council that the cessation of hostilities will not in itself ensure that a political solution in Syria is reached.
The demand was included in a resolution drafted jointly by Russian Federation and the U.S. that also urged the Syrian government and opposition to resume UN-brokered peace talks.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Friday reports that Syrian government forces dropped barrel bombs on Daraya “cause us great concern”.
“If implemented fully, this agreement could be the most significant step forward in the past five years; a step that brings us closer to an end to the violence; a step that brings the conclusion of this conflict into sight, and with it, hope for a political transition”, he said.
The HNC said the government and its allies must not use the “proposed text to continue the hostile operations against the opposition factions under the excuse of fighting terrorism”.
The Syrian government and the opposition, including almost 100 rebel groups, have said they will abide by the cease-fire despite serious skepticism about chances for success. Other rebels seen as moderates by the West say they fear this will be used to justify attacks on them.
Recent gains by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, with Iranian and Russian support, make it unlikely that they will stop fighting for long, if at all, said several analysts. Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told reporters that Turkey supports the cease-fire agreement in principle but is anxious about the continued operations.
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A monitoring group said shortly after midnight that across most of western Syria fighting appeared to have stopped, with isolated incidents of fire in some areas.
