The United States and Russian Federation have agreed to extend the current ceasefire in the Syria conflict by 48 hours, while much-needed aid continues to remain undistributed.
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Under a deal, which was brokered by the United States and Russian Federation on Friday, the U.S. annd Russian Federation are aiming for reduced violence over seven consecutive days, before they move to the next stage of coordinating military strikes against ISIL and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the group formerly known as al-Nusra Front. “I think we’d have some reasons to be skeptical that the Russians are able or are willing to implement the arrangement consistent with the way it’s been described”, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said Monday at a briefing. The eastern neighborhoods, where some 250,000 people live, have been under government siege for most of the past two months.
Under the terms of the deal, if the peace holds for seven days, Russian Federation and the United States will establish a framework for cooperation on military operations in Syria targeting terror groups.
Chief among Pentagon concerns is whether sharing targeting information with Russian Federation could reveal how the US uses intelligence to conduct airstrikes, not just in Syria but in other places, which Moscow could then use for its own advantage in the growing confrontations undersea and in the air around the Baltics and Europe.
The truce, agreed after marathon US-Russia talks in Geneva last week, is part of the latest bid to end a five-year conflict that has killed more than 300,000 people.
Syria’s ceasefire is holding, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights noting that there has not been a single death over the first 48 hours of the truce.
“From a Pentagon perspective, the US military is the one that, around the world, is on the receiving end of Russia’s military misbehavior”, said Derek Chollet, a former assistant secretary of defense in the Obama administration.
Ban said Wednesday he has been in touch with the Russian government, urging them to exercise influence on the Syrian government to let the trucks in.
The deal calls for the truce to be renewed every 48 hours, and for Washington and Moscow to begin unprecedented joint targeting of jihadists like IS and former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front if it lasts a week.
Earlier Thursday, activists said the cease-fire was still holding despite some violations.
We drove into the government side of the city through suburbs shattered by fighting and heard the occasional rumble of artillery in the distance.
Rebel fighters ride a vehicle in Jubata al-Khashab, in Quneitra countryside, Syria Sept. 11, 2016.
In Aleppo, residents said they need fresh produce, fuel and medicine for hospitals and clinics that have been targeted in government attacks.
The Syrian government has said it will reject any aid deliveries to the city not coordinated through itself and the United Nations, particularly from Turkey, which has backed the terrorists fighting the Syrian army.
Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkish side of the Syria-Turkey border, said while progress was being made, it could take several days for aid to reach the city.
Twenty trucks carrying food and flour entered northern Syria from the Turkish border town of Cilvegozu on Monday, according to Reuters news agency.
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The US has called on Assad to step down but so far has declined to carry out direct military action to remove him from power, leaving that job for the rebels that have received US support.
