As the ceasefire elsewhere in the country begins to expire, Russian Federation and the United States have brokered a 48-hour ceasefire in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, where two weeks of firing between military and rebel factions have killed almost 300 civilians, and hit several hospitals.
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“We look to Russian Federation as a co-chair of the International Syria Support Group to press for the Assad regime’s compliance with this effort, and the United States will do its part with the opposition”, the State Department statement said.
“Now we will have a permanent monitoring center where USA and Russian counterparts will be sitting at the same table”, Lavrov said Tuesday in a joint news conference with Staffan de Mistura, the U.N.’s special envoy to Syria.
Ending an upsurge of violence around Aleppo, Syria’s most populous city and main commercial hub before the war, is crucial to restoring a broader truce brokered in February by Russian Federation and the U.S. Syrian rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have traded rockets and bombs across Aleppo and its outskirts for nearly two weeks in clashes that have escalated.
A partial truce is in effect in Syria but it does not cover Aleppo, the country’s largest city and the scene of its worst violence in recent weeks.
The permanent representatives of the Arab League held a meeting in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Aleppo, Syria’s second city, where more than 270 people have been killed since hostilities resumed on 22 April.
The news came as three people were killed in renewed shelling by Syrian rebels of government-held areas in Aleppo.
Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, who met with Kerry in Washington on Wednesday, said the US-Russia agreement was “vital” to bringing an end to the Syrian conflict, although it wasn’t immediately clear if or for how long the ceasefire would be observed.
Suspected regime strikes also pummelled the rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, the Observatory said, after a temporary freeze on fighting in the area expired overnight.
Russian Federation is one of the most important worldwide backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Areas under the control of the Islamic State group and its main rival, the Syrian al-Qaida affiliate known as the Nusra Front, have not been included in the cease-fire. The agreement on Aleppo follows an earlier deal to reaffirm the truce in the Damascus suburbs and coastal Latakia province. “Shells and mortar rounds are raining down on every neighborhood Aleppo”, said Aleppo-based health official Mohammad Hazouri, speaking from Al-Razi hospital.
Aleppo has seen “catastrophic deterioration” in recent days, said Jan Egeland, chairman of the United Nations task force on humanitarian access in Syria. Without progress, he said there was a “real risk of a failed political process”.
“I hope that in the coming hours such an agreement will be announced”, Lavrov said after the meeting.
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A rebel told AP news agency that fighters had managed to take some ground from the government side, while the army said the attack was repelled. Reports in Washington suggest that this may mean the United States or its allies in the region are stepping up military supplies and training for the rebels.
