A joint U.S.-Russia statement made no explicit reference to ending the practice of pursuing partial truces. But U.S. officials say those area-specific cease-fires are now being folded into a reinstated, country-wide cease-fire.
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The chaos surrounding the latest bout of diplomacy, with the US and Syria offering what seemed like conflicting versions of events, underscored the profound difficulty in getting the warring parties to even agree on what they’ve agreed on, much less lay down arms for good.
“These are words on a piece of paper, they are not actions but they are a commitment by Russian Federation to in fact limit the Syrian regime from its ability to fly in civilian-occupied areas as well as to work with the commanders on the ground in order to try to deliver stability and a reaffirmation of the cessation of hostilities”. The United Nations special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has also displaced over half of the Arab country’s pre-war population of about 23 million.
Russian air strikes and other military assistance have helped tip the balance of the war in favour of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – whose fate has become the major stumbling block in efforts to end a half-decade of war.
Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei warned the Takfiri terrorists of the heavy price they are going to pay for inflicting casualties on forces in Syria’s Khan Touman, including a number of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) military advisers.
The temporary truce, initially for two days and then prolonged until Tuesday at 00:01 am (2101 GMT Monday), was decided after fierce fighting that killed almost 300 people since April 22 in Aleppo, where some areas are held by rebels and some by government forces. Yet in many places those groups are fighting alongside western-backed rebels, leading to accusations of violations that allowed the ceasefire to slowly unravel.
Talks in Geneva last month broke up amid acrimony.
On Sunday, Syrian rebels fired rockets into a regime-held district of Aleppo, killing five civilians including two children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Opposition activists also accused Syrian warplanes of striking rebel-held areas in the eastern part of the city.
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French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, hosting a meeting in Paris of Assad’s opponents, said Syrian government forces and their allies had bombarded hospitals and refugee camps.
