“We just announced a short time ago, as part of urgent efforts to try to de-escalate the violence in Syria and reaffirm the cessation of hostilities which is critical, that the United States and Russian Federation have now concluded arrangements with our teams, late yesterday evening, to reaffirm the cessation of hostilities in Aleppo province, including Aleppo city and its surrounding areas”.
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Since the cessation of hostilities went into effect at midnight in Syria, “we have seen an overall decrease in violence in these areas, even though there have been reports of continued fighting in some locations”, Toner said.
U.S. secretary of state John Kerry warned President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday of “repercussions” if he does not stick to a ceasefire brokered by Russian Federation and the United States and move forward with a political transition aimed at ending Syria’s war.
USA officials said earlier Wednesday that Washington had agreed with Moscow to expand a fragile cease-fire to the northern city of Aleppo, where violence has escalated in recent days and where sporadic fighting continues.
Once Syria’s largest city and commercial center, he said, Aleppo is being subjected to “systematic destruction” and is increasingly becoming “a shell of what it once was”.
The U.N. Security Council due to meet later Wednesday to discuss the escalation. “I don’t think Assad is going to benefit from that”, he added.
The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdurrahman described those clashes as some of the worst between the government and rebel fighters over the a year ago in Aleppo.
Germany’s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed the new agreement and called for President Bashar Assad’s government and all armed groups to respect the truce.
Kerry said in Washington that an accord renewing a partial cease-fire nationwide should come “as soon as possible”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that the deal covering Aleppo was close and that the Russian and United States militaries might announce a decision “in the coming hours”.
Rebel fighters initially advanced from the western suburbs of the city into government-held districts but were pushed back by Wednesday morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Kerry said the United States was trying to determine which opposition group was responsible for a rocket attack on a hospital in Aleppo on Tuesday, saying there was no justification for such “horrific violence”.
He said the USA was not alone in that assessment, adding that other parties involved in the diplomacy including Europeans, Gulf states and Turkey have all “said you can’t end this as long as Assad continues, because Assad cannot reunite the country”.
“They made a decision to announce it now because they believe that the ceasefire is holding”, Jordan said.
It said that rebel shelling of government-held areas killed at least 19 people, including three children.
A rebel fighter said about 40 government soldiers had been killed, while rebel losses stood at 10 dead.
The commander of Jordan’s Border Guard Forces says the number of Syrian refugees gathered in remote desert areas on the Jordanian border and waiting to enter has risen to a new high of 59,000.
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The convoluted conflict pits the regime and allies including Iran, Russia, Hezbollah and Shi’ite militias against rebel groups including secular nationalists, Kurds, Salafists and jihadists including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) and al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra.
