Turkey, which invaded Syria just two weeks ago, has also signed on.
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– In the Ramussa area south of Aleppo, “both pro-government and opposition groups will be required to provide safe, unhindered, and sustainable humanitarian, commercial, and civilian access to eastern and western Aleppo”, which is roughly divided into opposition control in the east and regime control in the west.
At least 90 civilians were killed in a series of airstrikes on rebel-held areas in the provinces of Aleppo in northern Syria and Idlib in the northwest, a monitoring group reported. Nusra is not going to be a party to the new ceasefire, so it remains to be seen if it will have any impact at all on Aleppo fighting.
Abu Hasan, who works with a local civil society group, laughed off the ceasefire plan as “a joke”.
Syria’s moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels said on Saturday they saw were skeptical the deal would be enforced as Damascus and Moscow had continued bombing their areas under earlier truces.
One of the air strikes targeted a crowded market in Idlib.
-Russian agreement on a cease-fire for Syria, where it has been a key ally of President Bashar Assad during the five-year war that has resulted in as many as 500,000 deaths.
That sets off a seven-day period that will allow for humanitarian aid and civilian traffic into Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, which has faced a recent onslaught.
Rebels now face the “biggest and most momentous decision since they chose to take up arms against the Assad regime in 2011”, he said.
The accord included a truce to start across Syria at sunset Monday, the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shake hands at the conclusion of a news conference following their meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, where they hammered out a Syrian ceasefire deal.
Mr Lavrov said Russian Federation had informed the Syrian government about the arrangements and the Syrian government was “ready to fulfil them”.
He said the truce would come into force on Monday, the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, and that if it holds for seven days the USA would begin cooperation with Russian forces in targetting militants of the the Nusra Front and Islamic State (IS) group.
Some of the air strikes are believed to have hit the towns of Anadan and Hreitan near Aleppo, Syria’s second city. It is not clear how the government will distinguish between the two, and whether it can strike at the Fatah al-Sham group without hitting other rebels as well.
A UN-supported truce in February faltered after each side accused the other of repeated violations, and Damascus resident Taher Ibrahim told AFP he did not expect this new truce to play out any differently.
Truces agreed in the past have collapsed after both sides failed to hold up their ends of the bargain.
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Also on Monday, the United States and Russian Federation will begin preparations for the creation of a Joint Implementation Centre that will share the information needed to define areas controlled by the radical Jabhat Fatah Al Sham (formerly Al Nusra Front) and opposition groups in areas “of active hostilities”.
