Brokered in February chiefly by Moscow and Washington, the truce called on Syria’s warring parties to immediately halt hostilities and sought to increase humanitarian access in the country.
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On Monday, the U.S. reached a new agreement with Russian Federation, which co-chairs the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) together with Washington.
The global community hopes that a drop in fighting can revive faltering peace talks to end a five-year war that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.
Yet Monday has still seen multiple air raids on rebel-held areas while shelling hit government-controlled parts of the northern city of Aleppo Monday, hours before a five-day cease-fire is to expire, two opposition monitoring groups and Syrian state media report. The state department said Mr Kerry and Mr Al Jubeir “stressed the importance of all sides fully respecting the cessation of hostilities” and also consulted on the US-led fight against ISIL. That is particularly significant in areas near Aleppo, where fighters from al-Qaeda-backed Jabhat al-Nusra – which is not party to the cease-fire and is considered a legitimate target – are often based near strongholds of rebels who are parties to the cease-fire.
The rebels had yet to confirm the extension of the truce, which was decided after almost 300 people were killed in an uptick in fighting in Syria’s largest city since late April.
In Aleppo, cease-fire that was extended over the weekend was set to expire just a few hours after Kerry spoke, raising questions about whether fighting would break out anew in the absence of a formal declaration of another extension. “It is not Daesh (Islamic State) that is being attacked in Aleppo, it is the moderate opposition”, he said.
A USA official speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to address the matter publicly, said Nusra is emphasized because it is “present in areas where they are proximate to civilians and/or parties to the cessation”.
The United States will expand the support it lends to the allies in the Middle East to obstruct transit of arms and militants across the Syrian border to the Islamic State (IS, or ISIL) and the Nusra Front terrorist groups outlawed in both the United States and Russian Federation.
In telephone talks Monday US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed “the need to pursue negotiations between Syrian authorities and all the opposition under United Nations mediation”, according to the Russian foreign ministry statement. Kerry attended the talks but sources said he played a low-key role in a sign that Washington still believes the best hope for progress is to work most closely with Moscow.
A joint US-Russia statement made no explicit reference to ending the practice of pursuing partial truces.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, hosting a meeting in Paris of Assad’s opponents, said Syrian government forces and their allies had bombarded hospitals and refugee camps.
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Tehran has already said that its red line is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s remaining in power until his term in office is over.
