It would be conditional on the Nusra Front, which is linked to al-Qaida, no longer being attacked by Syrian government forces and their allies, at least to start with, the source said.
Advertisement
He pointed out that Turkey and Saudi Arabia had no right to intrude into Syrian territory.
Assad said Turkey may also take advantage of the ceasefire to send “terrorists and arms” into Syria.
President Bashar al-Assad, whose fate has been a key sticking point in efforts to end Syria’s bloody civil war as it enters its sixth year, left open the question of whether he would still be president by then.
The deputy permanent representative of Russian Federation to the United Nations Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said, “The main elements of the draft resolution demand all parties to refrain from interfering in Syria; to fully respect its sovereignty nd independence; abandon plans for ground operations which would undermine all fundamental decisions of Resolution 2254”.
Speaking from Jordan on Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said he had discussed a truce proposal with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“The rebel factions agreed in principle on the possibility of reaching a temporary ceasefire provided it is done with global mediation and with guarantees obliging Russia, Iran and their sectarian militias and mercenaries to stop fighting”, HNC chief Riad Hijab said in a statement.
SDF, one of the major forces on the ground fighting against the Islamic State, is backed by the US air campaign and made territorial gains in northern Syria.
A Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighter walks near a wall, which activists said was put up by Turkish authorities, on the Syria-Turkish border in the western countryside of Ras al-Ain, Syria January 29, 2016.
“Secretary Kerry also restated his deep concern over the indiscriminate nature of continued bombing by Russian military aircraft and the lives being lost as a result”, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
The two countries, which organized the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), have agreed to a ceasefire on February 12 during a meeting in Munich, and have been hammering out the details ever since.
The Russian draft, seen by Reuters, would have the council express “its grave alarm at the reports of military buildup and preparatory activities aimed at launching foreign ground intervention into the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic”. “It makes no sense for us to say that we will give up any part”, Assad told AFP news agency last week.
Syria’s conflict is now approaching its sixth year, with more than 260,000 people killed and half the population displaced.
The Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, on Saturday called on the United States to give unconditional support in the fight against Syrian Kurdish militants, illustrating growing tension between Ankara and Washington over policy in northern Syria.
Syria’s government says Turkish artillery shelling inside Syria is an “outrageous violation” of global law.
Advertisement
The talks, which collapsed earlier this month in Geneva, were scheduled to resume on Thursday, but the UN’s envoy on Syria has already acknowledged that date is no longer “realistically” possible.
