Two aid convoys, each of around 20 trucks carrying mostly food and flour, that were headed for the city of Aleppo have been held up since crossing the Turkish border, according to United Nations and other officials.
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The head of Russia’s ceasefire monitoring centre in Syria said that the Castello Road – the main supply route to Aleppo – had come under mortar fire.
Who’s fighting who, and why?
Moscow-Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov called on the United States to reveal the details of the bilateral agreement on Syria, adding that such a deal should be made official by translating it into an global resolution.
Who brokered it: The deal was hammered out by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva.
Russia’s foreign ministry is pushing to release it, with Mr. Lavrov telling reporters on Tuesday that Moscow wants the deal to be made public but that the US opposes such a move.
Since the truce came into effect at sunset on Monday, accusations have been made against both rebels and government forces for sporadically violating it. -Russian authorization of bombing missions by Assad’s forces.
If the relative calm holds for seven days, the USA and Russian Federation would then cooperate on how to jointly combat the Al Qaeda-linked group formerly called the Nusra Front and now known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.
The US-Russian deal aims to end fighting between President Bashar al-Assad’s loyalists and a wide range of rebels, but excludes jihadist forces like the Islamic State group. “They are still there”, Ban said.
The Aleppo activist said it’s the first time the United States and Russian Federation have forged an agreement that “paves the way for humanitarian aid access” and a no-military zone for people to use the highway.
Then, hours before the expiry of the first ceasefire, Russian Federation demanded the extension. If the week-long cessation holds and aid is distributed to besieged areas, the two powers intend to coordinate strikes against the Islamic State and a rebel group that has had ties to al-Qaida. “The truce is holding”.
Lavrov Calls for Translating Russia-U.S. The deal’s architects hope the ceasefire will pave the way for an extended period of restraint that can serve as the foundation for peace talks.
There’s plenty of room for skepticism about this plan, given the history of failed attempts to stop the violence in Syria’s five-year-long war, as Alice has reported. A truce in late February collapsed just days later.
Syrian opposition supporters have become increasingly critical of the United Nations, saying it relies too much on permission from Damascus to carry out humanitarian work, leaving rebel-held areas at a severe disadvantage.
A Syrian activist group that tracks the country’s civil war says more than 300,000 people have been killed so far in the conflict.
The Observatory said on Thursday (AEST) that it “did not register any death of a civilian, rebel fighter, regime soldier or their allies in the areas where the cease-fire was being implemented in the past 48 hours”.
Many refugees have died attempting unsafe crossings in rickety boats over the Mediterranean to reach Europe, where many countries have tightened their rules on asylum-seekers to prevent more Syrians and others from coming in.
Saudi Arabia has welcomed the USA and Russian-brokered truce in Syria and urged the Syrian government and its allies to abide by it. In a speech on September 13, Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad said Syria was one of five countries that routinely refused to cooperate with human rights investigators.
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Getting aid to besieged Syrians in areas like eastern Aleppo was the first priority of the temporary truce.
