Analyst Ruslan Pukhov told TASS news agency that although the Assad regime has endorsed the deal, the beleaguered Syrian leader “is unable to completely control all of his supporters” who might be tempted to violate the truce.
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The surge in violence came hours after the United States and Russia’s top diplomats announced the ceasefire agreement after 13 hours of talks in the Swiss city of Geneva.
And the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi yesterday said Tehran also backed the deal.
Earlier yesterday, Ahrar Al Sham said it would not respect the ceasefire, which is meant to ease the country’s humanitarian crisis and pave the way to peace talks.
-Russian deal for a ceasefire and aid deliveries in Syria but with reservations about the handling of violations by the government side, a rebel official said on Sunday.
Hizbollah, which has intervened on behalf of Mr Al Assad, gave its support for the ceasefire late on Saturday.
In February, a cessation of hostilities negotiated between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov fell apart within weeks, and efforts to reach a political settlement in the war-torn country have been on the verge of collapse. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has cautioned that Moscow can not “100 percent guarantee” that all parties will obey the new ceasefire.
The US has also committed to severing the ties between Jabhat Fatah Al Sham, which Washington and Moscow still consider to be linked to Al Qaeda, and American-backed rebels fighting Mr Al Assad. The Syrian government has agreed to the truce but it remains unclear whether it will last long enough for the beginning of coordinated US-Russia military action.
Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, one of the most powerful factions in Syria, is part of the Fatah Army coalition that played an instrumental role in the fighting against Assad’s forces over the past year in northern Syria. It is not clear how these governments intend to distinguish between Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and other allied rebel factions or how they will be able to attack the al-Qaida linked militants without hitting other rebels as well.
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An activist collective known as the Aleppo Media Center reported at least 45 people had been killed in rebel-held parts of the city, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights placed the regional death toll at 69. On Saturday, air strikes on rebel-held areas killed scores of people. As shoppers flocked to a market to purchase gifts for the upcoming Eid holiday, Al Jazeera’s Adham Abu al-Husam reports that a Russian jet attacked from above, killing 55 civilians – 13 women and 13 children among them, CNN reports.
