-
Tips for becoming a good boxer - November 6, 2020
-
7 expert tips for making your hens night a memorable one - November 6, 2020
-
5 reasons to host your Christmas party on a cruise boat - November 6, 2020
-
What to do when you’re charged with a crime - November 6, 2020
-
Should you get one or multiple dogs? Here’s all you need to know - November 3, 2020
-
A Guide: How to Build Your Very Own Magic Mirror - February 14, 2019
-
Our Top Inspirational Baseball Stars - November 24, 2018
-
Five Tech Tools That Will Help You Turn Your Blog into a Business - November 24, 2018
-
How to Indulge on Vacation without Expanding Your Waist - November 9, 2018
-
5 Strategies for Businesses to Appeal to Today’s Increasingly Mobile-Crazed Customers - November 9, 2018
US, Russia to set mechanism for Syria ceasefire violations – Kerry
The truce in Syria in force since midnight on February 27, has already been marred by airstrikes and artillery attacks.
Advertisement
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said there been some incidents but the ceasefire was generally holding.
A war of words between the Syrian government and Saudi Arabia, a key backer of the Syrian opposition, added to the rising tensions.
Saying the global contact group would seek to verify dozens of reported breeches, the White House said: “We remain committed to this process”.
The cessation of hostilities between a handful of rebel groups and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began Friday, excluding terrorist groups such as ISIS and al Nusra Front. The foreign minister also accused Syrian forces of violating the cease-fire.
The plan does not apply to Daesh and the Al Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front, which Moscow and Damascus have said they will continue to target. The cease-fire has significantly reduced violence across the war-ravaged country, bringing some respite to civilians, particularly from airstrikes.
Syria’s opposition is hoping that this cessation of hostilities will be a chance to deliver badly needed humanitarian aid to hard to reach areas.
A briefing note sent out by OCHA Monday says the assistance will include food, water and sanitation supplies, as well as non-food items and medicine to people trapped in besieged areas.
A convoy carrying sanitation supplies and blankets was due to head to the town of Moadamiyet al-Sham, surrounded by regime forces south of Damascus, on Monday, a United Nations source told AFP news agency.
Aid deliveries are a main opposition demand ahead of the planned resumption of Syrian peace talks in Geneva on March 7.
Syria’s opposition said on Sunday it would stick to the cessation of hostilities despite a number of violations by Syrian government forces.
Fayyad was a Hezbollah veteran who had led major battles against the Israeli army in south Lebanon.
Fighting in Aleppo continued Monday.
Over the last three days, Russian warplanes have targeted villages in the west-central Hama province and the northwestern Aleppo province, according to local sources. It was not immediately clear which militant groups were taking part in the fighting.
But France expressed concern about reports of strikes by Syrian government and Russian aircraft on areas controlled by mainstream rebels.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Saudi-backed opposition High Negotiations Committee’s delegation to the peace talks, Asaad al-Zoubi, warned that the truce may not hold.
Hijab said there had been 24 cases of shelling and five cases of ground attacks.
The taskforce monitoring the truce is “now trying to make sure that this does not spread any further and that this cessation of hostilities can continue”.
Jean-Marc Ayrault made the comments Monday shortly before addressing a meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
In the follow-up of the joint statement by the Russian and U.S. leaders issued on February 22, a special Center for Reconciliation of the Warring Sides was set up at Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in Syria’s Latakia.
Advertisement
A range of operation centres around the world are collecting “information on infringements”, de Mistura told reporters overnight to Saturday as the ceasefire began. “We believe that this place should be determined by the Syrian people”, Ryabkov said during a press conference.