The outcome of U.S. -Russia talks on Syria on Friday was “stuck in Washington” after a day of talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a Russian official at the talks said.
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In Geneva, secretary of state John Kerry was once more locked in talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, but USA officials warned that negotiations could not go on forever without a breakthrough. “Today we are announcing an arrangement that we think has the capability of sticking but it’s dependent on people’s choices”, Kerry said.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad fighting numerous opposition faction and extremist groups. First shorter cease-fires would take place and then after the cease-fire holds for 7 days, the US and Russian Federation would begin cooperating militarily.
Getting Assad’s government and rebel groups to comply with the deal may now be more hard as fighting rages around the divided city of Aleppo, Syria’s most populous and the new focus of a war that has killed as many as 500,000 people.
The two countries also agreed to carry out joint air strikes in Syria if the ceasefire holds for a week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. The breakthrough is seen by both officials has having the potential to provide a turning point for Syria, where the conflict has killed up to 500,000 people. The United States has committed to help weaken the Nusra Front, an extremist group that has intermingled with the US -backed opposition in places.
The new arrangement is supposed to begin Monday in Syria, with a seven-day-long continuous “genuine reduction of violence”, in Mr. Kerry’s words, and broad, unrestricted humanitarian access to the ravaged northern city of Aleppo and other besieged areas.
Both sides have failed to deliver their ends of the bargain over several previous truces.
“Only the Russian and American air forces will work in these zones”, Lavrov said.
Russia, in response, has chafed at America’s financial and military assistance to groups that have intermingled with the Nusra Front on the battlefield.
“That should put an end to the barrel bombs, an end to the indiscriminate bombing of civilian neighborhoods”, Kerry said. “It is profoundly in the interests of the United States”.
During the exhaustive talks, Mr Lavrov jibed at the USA, claiming “it takes five hours for our friends to check with Washington”. “We will be watching closely the implementation of this understanding in the days ahead”.
Getting Assad’s government and rebel groups to comply with the deal may now be more hard as fighting rages around the divided city of Aleppo.
The final hours of the talks dragged out as Kerry contacted US President Barack Obama s office to get approval for the plan, but the top diplomat said both governments stand behind it.
Forty days of fighting in Aleppo has killed almost 700 civilians, including 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.
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Pro-regime forces have taken back a strategically important district on Aleppo’s southern outskirts, rolling back almost every gain from a month-long rebel offensive there. And Secretary of State John Kerry is really enthusiastic the plan will work this time.
