The truce has been in effect for 24 hours and since this time the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura relays that the situation has improved rapidly and notes that aid access should soon become available to several regions, including Aleppo, which is the portion of the city held by rebel forces and is under blockade.
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The ceasefire, brokered by the United States and Russian Federation, is supported by countries that back Assad and his opponents, and marks the second attempt this year to halt a war that has frustrated all peace efforts since fighting began more than five years ago. Russian Federation is a major backer of President Bashar al-Assad, while the United States supports some of the rebel groups fighting to topple him.
United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura said reports reaching his office indicated “a significant drop in violence”, in a rare respite in Syria’s devastating conflict.
In Geneva, de Mistura said there had been allegations of sporadic and geographically isolated incidents.
“The U.N.is ready. There is a little homework still to be done by others”, he said.
Turkey’s state-run news agency said two Syrians wounded in an attack by government forces were rushed across the border into Turkey for treatment.
AFP correspondents in government-held Damascus and its rebel-controlled suburbs reported quiet too, with residents taking advantage of the lull in violence to mark the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that it had received not a single report of combatants or civilians killed by fighting in any areas covered by the truce.
The Russian reconciliation center for Syria said militants had shelled the district where the Aleppo governor resides.
Outside the scope of the truce, Turkey said on Tuesday that air strikes by a USA -led coalition had killed three fighters from Islamic State.
“Over the last 24 hours, while we have seen some violations, and I think Secretary (of State John) Kerry spoke to this yesterday that this isn’t going to be a clean start to this, there are going to be some ongoing incidents of violence”, he said, adding that Washington will continue evaluating and consulting with Russian Federation to determine if violations are occurring. 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.
“I urge all the parties to support it because it may be the last chance that one has to save a united Syria”, he said. The conflict has killed more than 290,000 people since its beginning in 2011 while displacing half of the country’s population.
Brita Hagi Hassan told Reuters the rebel-held part of the city, which has been fully encircled by pro-government forces for more than a week, was in dire need of fuel, flour, wheat, baby milk, and medicines. But Putin and Assad have agreed to multiple previous truces, in Syria and, in Putin’s case, Ukraine – and violated all of them.
The toll included 86,692 civilians, 10,009 of whom were children.
Russian Federation said its troops had been deployed on the key Castello Road running from Turkey into Aleppo that is to become a demilitarised zone under the deal.
Russian Federation said De Mistura could invite government and opposition representatives to new peace talks “at the very beginning of October”. That group, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front), has condemned the truce, saying the deal is aimed at keeping President Bashar Assad in power.
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But many Islamist rebel groups cooperate closely with Fateh al-Sham, and the biggest of them – the powerful Ahrar al-Sham group – has criticised the terms of the Russian-US deal.
