President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and Syrian rebel groups have reached a ceasefire set to go into effect at midnight local time, Russian Federation announced on Thursday.
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When will it go into effect?
Who will ensure the truce isn’t broken?
The agreement that is reached will be submitted to the UN Security Council later Thursday, the Russian foreign minister said.
Calm still prevailed in many areas included in the deal, the Observatory and rebel officials said, but the fighting highlighted the fragility of any truce agreement in a country where repeated global efforts towards peace have failed.
Turkey and Russian Federation are guarantors of the ceasefire agreement, adding both countries “strongly support and will jointly monitor the ceasefire”.
What else do we know? “The third document is a declaration of intention for Syrian settlement”.
Russian Federation and Turkey have both said the peace talks they will supervise are meant to supplement UN-backed peace efforts, rather than replace them entirely.
“Russia wants to exclude Eastern Ghouta from the ceasefire, which is not acceptable”, he said, referring to a rebel-held area outside Damascus.
In the early hours of the ceasefire, Syrian government forces carried out at least 20 air raids in several rebel-held towns on the borders between the provinces of Idlib and Hama, according to Reuters.
Anadolu said the two countries have reached a consensus that will be presented to participants in the conflict on expanding the ceasefire that was established in Aleppo earlier this month. Idlib is now home to several thousand mainly radical fighters and, the United Nations estimates, 700,000 displaced civilians.
Despite backing opposite sides in the conflict, Turkey and Russian Federation have worked increasingly closely on Syria, brokering a deal this month to allow the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians and rebel fighters from Aleppo.
Read our guide to find out more about why there is a war in Syria and why the city of Aleppo is so important. The recapture of the city means Assad now controls the overwhelming majority of Syria’s population centers. It said the government and the opposition had agreed to halt attacks, including aerial attacks, and not to expand territories under their control in a way that would be detrimental to each other.
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Turkey opposes the Assad regime, but is also busy fighting terrorists in northern Syria and is anxious about the power accrued by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), who are advancing towards Isis-held Raqqa with the support of the US-led global coalition. The ceasefire does not include the former al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the Islamic State group or any of their allies.
