The cessation of hostilities, as diplomats call it, doesn’t apply to the Islamic State group or the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s Syria affiliate, which has caused problems in in places such as Aleppo.
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The US and Russian Federation have agreed to work with Syria’s warring parties to extend a shaky truce to the city of Aleppo, the US State Department said on Wednesday.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that, overall, “we have seen an overall decrease in violence in these areas”.
Secretary of State John Kerry warned Syria’s Bashar al-Assad of repercussions if his regime flouts a new truce under negotiation, as talks to halt the violence shifted to Berlin on Wednesday. That is for the future.”Kerry said the USA and Russian Federation were working on the details of a more durable cease-fire that would include Aleppo and prevent the metropolis from falling”.
Despite the new agreement between Washington and Moscow, a rift between the two major powers over the five-year Syrian civil war also was exposed during Wednesday’s meeting at the Security Council.
According to the Syrian state news agency SANA, in recent days rebels have fired a barrage of rockets into regime-held neighborhoods in western Aleppo. Though the two countries have monitored previous efforts to end the fighting, they have done so only at a distance, from separate offices in separate countries.
A rebel source said sustained air strikes on insurgents arrayed along the fringes of government-controlled Jamiyat Al Zahraa had forced them into a retreat.
The U.S. and Russian Federation have been working to salvage the cease-fire they brokered together, which held surprisingly well until two weeks ago amid an alarming uptick of violence around Aleppo.
According to a new report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced almost half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.
In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was scheduled to meet Riad Hijab, chief coordinator of the Syrian opposition’s High Negotiations Committee; Staffan de Mistura, the special United Nations envoy to Syria; and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to discuss the crisis.
The new truce, if successful, would close a glaring hole in US efforts to reduce violence in Syria after another, partial, ceasefire was announced last Friday in the northwestern region of Latakia and the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta.
The truce in Aleppo comes as the city has witnessed over 10 violent days, during which over 120 people were killed and hundreds of others wounded.
“The test is Aleppo now”, he said. Alluding to allegations that the Syrian government is responsible for widespread bombings and attacks, Churkin said, “it’s counterproductive to express public criticism on unverified incidents simply to add new charges against the Syrian government”.
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Fatalities included people at al-Dhabit hospital, state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, blaming Islamist groups for the shelling.
