In Syria, a nationwide ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russian Federation began at sundown on yesterday, coinciding with the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, but there are concerns about whether it will hold.
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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at 4pm GMT that “calm is prevailing” in major conflict zones across the country.
The deal’s fragility was underscored even before it took effect when President Bashar al-Assad vowed to retake all of Syria from “terrorists”.
The deal, announced last week by Washington and Moscow, calls for a halt to fighting between the USA -backed opposition and the Russian-allied Syrian government.
One of the more immediate goals of the Kerry-Lavrov agreement is to allow the U.N.to establish aid corridors into Aleppo, the contested northern Syrian city.
The deal allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants with the Levant Conquest Front (LCF), previously known as the Nusra Front, until the U.S. and Russian Federation take over the task in one week’s time. The Syrian government, as well as Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah armed group, two of its strongest allies, have all agreed to the deal, but rebel groups expressed serious concerns.
Kerry also said that the only “realistic and possible solution” to the conflict would be a return to UN-mediated peace talks. Kerry negotiated the truce with Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, and announced it with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov last week.
“It may be the last chance one has to save a united Syria”.
He made no mention of the ceasefire agreement, but said the army would continue its work “without hesitation, regardless of any internal or external circumstances”.
“While walking through the war-torn city of Daraya, Assad told one Syrian media outlet, “. the Syrian state is determined to retake every area from the terrorists and restore security and safety”.
The rebels say the deal benefits Assad, whose military position has improved since the last truce brokered by Washington and Moscow collapsed earlier this year. Opposition fighters are expected to separate from jihadist groups in areas such as Aleppo.
Questions remain, however, about how the ceasefire will apply in several parts of the country where the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, is present.
But that scenario is complicated by the fact that Jabhat Fatah al-Sham remains intertwined with several other groups fighting on the ground.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was concerned that some opposition groups including the powerful Ahrar al-Sham, which fights in close coordination with Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, had refused to respect the ceasefire.
“My feeling is that the concept of a cessation of hostilities is good”, Bassam Barabandi, a former Syrian diplomat now with the Syrian opposition High Negotiating Committee, told Al-Monitor on September 12.
Russian Federation and Western nations hope the truce can lead to the revival of peace talks between Assad’s government and the rebels battling to overthrow him, and contribute to efforts to defeat the Islamic State group and other extremists in Syria. And in the southern province of Daraa, a rebel faction said in a statement that it had killed four government soldiers.
The letter, seen by Reuters, said the ceasefire shared the flaw that doomed the previous truce: a lack of guarantees or monitoring mechanisms.
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The US administration has offered briefings on the deal to High Negotiations Committee chief Riyad Hijab, Barabandi said, but Hijab has been attending the hajj, the religious pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, so has not been able to be reached.
