The nationwide truce went into effect at sundown Monday and continued to hold despite reports of sporadic violations.
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A ceasefire in Syria brokered by the United States and Russian Federation has brought a rare period of calm to hard-hit parts of the country, activists said Tuesday, sending normally terrified residents out to shop, play and visit loved ones.
United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Tuesday reports reaching his office indicated “a significant drop in violence”, in a rare respite in Syria’s devastating conflict. De Mistura said that allegations of mortar shelling on the road, “by the opposition, in this case”, had been reported.
But he said, the USA military would “look for ways to make this work within the confines of the agreement”. It also said three shells were fired at the government-held southern village of Hadar.
On Sept. 13, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights raised its overall death toll for the conflict, saying it had documented 301,781 civilians and fighters killed since March 18, 2011, but estimated the total death toll to be around 430,000.
Russian Federation said it was preparing for the Syrian army and rebel fighters to begin a staged withdrawal from an Aleppo road expected to be used for aid deliveries on Thursday.
US Secretary of State John Kerry had said earlier that it was “far too early to draw conclusions” about the success of the ceasefire but urged all sides to seize the opportunity. He said the government had agreed September 6 – before the cease-fire deal was inked – to allow aid into five areas, but the authorizations still haven’t come. “There is not great confidence that this truce can last longer than the previous one”, said opposition politician George Sabra.
The lull in violence was a rare respite for residents of the war-ravaged country, where more than half the population has been displaced and hundreds of thousands live under siege.
Earlier, the US President Barack Obama said he is not optimistic about the future success of a possible cease-fire in Syria despite ongoing talks between the United States and Russian Federation.
In Kafranbel in Idlib province, also in the north, Abu Muhammad said residents are relieved that no airstrikes have occurred there. That Aleppo gets completely overrun?
In the government-held west of the city, Habib Badr was enjoying the silence.
During a joint news conference on Tuesday with Luxembourg Foreign Affairs Minister Jean Asselborn, Lavrov said that he put forward a proposal to publish the text of the agreement and “not keeping it secret as Washington wants”. “I will say that we are close to reaching a deal with the United States. there are no grounds to expect that everything would collapse”. His next major effort, the Iran nuclear deal, was far more successful, and he ultimately found a way to convince the Iranians to ship most of their nuclear material out of the country and dismantle key facilities.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry denied entry of humanitarian aid to Aleppo unless it is coordinated through the government and United Nations – especially aid coming from Turkey, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
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.
Jan Egeland, the top humanitarian aid official in de Mistura’s office, said the “good news” from the cessation of hostilities was that the bloodshed has dropped – and that “attacks on schools, attacks on hospitals have stopped”.
For now, military leaders remain deeply skeptical.
A crucial part of the deal calls on non-extremist rebels to break ranks with Jabhat Fatah Al Sham ahead of joint US-Russian operations against the group.
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The Jabhat Fatah al-Sham statement came a day after Syria’s largest insurgent groups expressed misgivings over the deal for excluding the al-Qaida-linked militants, who have been fighting alongside the rebels against Assad’s forces.
