Under the terms, if the cease-fire holds for seven days, the United States and Russian Federation will undertake a new collaboration of airstrikes against jihadi militants in Syria, and the Syrian air force will be barred from flying over insurgent-held areas.
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Almost 100 people were reported killed in attacks on rebel-held areas around the country Saturday and Sunday, according to tallies by medical workers, rescuers and monitoring groups.
Opposition rebel militias and the Free Syrian Army have criticized the agreement but did not move to violate it.
“The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists”, Assad said, using his blanket terminology for supporters of the insurgency, which began in March 2011.
The statement, carried by state media, came almost a full day into a fragile truce brokered by Russian Federation and the United States that calls for immediate and unhindered humanitarian access throughout Syria.
The architects of the truce hope it can pave the way for the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged areas and lead to the resumption of peace talks aimed at ending the 5 ½ year conflict. And the USA -led coalition can continue attacks on Islamic State militants.
Just hours before the ceasefire started, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gave a defiant message to the country’s opposition forces.
The Islamic State group and former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front are not party to it.
More than 2000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.
In a statement, the deputy commander of the group said that the ceasefire would only serve to “reinforce” the Assad government and “increase the suffering” of civilians. The coalition has been behind stunning attacks in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib in recent months that left scores of Syrian government troops as well as allied Iraqi militiamen and members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group dead since the February truce collapsed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, estimates that up to 430,000 people have been killed in the conflict, although an accurate estimate is nearly impossible to obtain.
In the 12-minute video, the narrator mocks USA and Western intelligence agencies for being unable to prevent IS fighters from carrying out attacks in France, Belgium and Germany.
But the most powerful rebel groups have shown deep misgivings over the cease-fire deal, which was crafted without their input last weekend in Geneva between the top USA and Russian diplomats.
The US Secretary of State called the ceasefire a “last chance” for peace.
Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in the coastal city of Antalya on Tuesday the Syrian government broke the cease-fire immediately after it came into effect the previous evening.
“Despite that, this plan has a chance to work”, he said. “Now, that can take a day or two or so”.
September 2013: Kerry and Lavrov negotiate a deal to strip the Syrian government of its chemical weapons in return for the United States backing away from air strikes.
Opposition sources quoted by Reuters said a forthcoming statement supporting the cessation “with harsh reservations” would be backed by “the largest groups”, including Ahrar al-Sham.
“The Syrian Arab Republic announces its rejection of the entry of humanitarian aid to Aleppo, particularly from the Turkish regime, without coordination with the Syrian government and the United Nations”, state television quoted the foreign ministry as saying.
The ceasefire, negotiated by the United States and Russian Federation, appears to be holding in its early stages, although many observers believe its efficacy will only become clearer as Tuesday progresses.
Hours before the ceasefire went into effect, Assad vowed that his government would take back land from “terrorists” and rebuild the country. The United States and Russian Federation coordinated a partial ceasefire in February, but violence soon resumed.
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Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday that Moscow wants the deal, which launched a nationwide cessation of hostilities in Syria, to be made public but that the US opposes such a move.
