A nationwide ceasefire in Syria brokered by the United States and Russian Federation came into effect at 7 p.m. local time (12 p.m. ET) on Monday, the second attempt this year by Washington and Moscow to halt the five-year-long civil war.
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Provided the cessation of hostilities holds for seven days-which is no sure thing-the United States and Russian Federation will take, in the words of Lavrov, “coordinated steps” to target both ISIS and the extremist al-Nusra Front, recently rebranded as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.
“As soon as U.S. -Russia strikes begin then the Syrian regime will be prevented from flying combat missions over areas in which the legitimate opposition is present”, Kerry said. Government forces will be allowed to fight defensively, target the Islamic State group and, in some designated areas, go after Nusra forces.
Speaking in Daraya, a former rebel stronghold recently surrendered to the government, Assad said “the Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists”, state media reported.
A final rocket was sacked from the east into government areas just five minutes before 7:00 pm, while rebel neighbourhoods had not been hit by bombardments for about two hours, they said.
The cease-fire, announced Saturday by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, calls for a halt to fighting between the U.S. -backed opposition and the Russian-allied Syrian government. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed in the conflict and 11 million made homeless in the world’s worst refugee crisis.
Whether the process will work depends to a large extent on whether Russian Federation and the United States can bring pressure on their allies – the Government and the rebels, respectively – and whether Washington and Moscow are committed enough to make the deal stick.
The cease-fire began Monday at sundown, and Secretary of State John Kerry is cautiously optimistic.
The Syrian government said it welcomes the deal.
Italy says a Syrian cease-fire could pave the way for political negotiations aimed at ending the long and bloody conflict.
“The clauses of the agreement that have been shared with us do not include any clear guarantees or monitoring mechanisms. or repercussions if there are truce violations”, they said.
The activist, who asked to be identified only as Omar for security reasons, said he was in Idlib to cover the atmosphere a day ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
The bombing on Monday came as al-Qaida-linked militants pushed on with an offensive in the country’s southern Quneitra province.
At least seven people, including three children, were killed in rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Monday, according to UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. But it has received mixed messages of commitment from various rebel factions.
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In Aleppo, the northern city that has emerged as the epicenter of the fighting, opposition media activist Mahmoud Raslan said government helicopters dropped crude barrel bombs on a contested neighborhood, while a doctor reported heavy shelling along the Castello road, a key route to besieged, opposition-held areas.
