U.S. secretary of state John Kerry announced the deal with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov late Friday in Geneva after a day of marathon negotiations.
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The new US-Russia strategy hinges on deeper cooperation between the US and Russian military against extremist groups operating in Syria, particularly ISIS and Nusra Front.
Syria’s government Saturday approved a ceasefire deal brokered by its Russian ally and the United States to end fighting in the war-ravaged country, but the main opposition group was more cautious.
More than 290,000 people have been killed since the conflict in Syria first erupted in March 2011, and several attempts at securing a long-lasting truce have failed. The deal apparently hasn’t inspired much optimism inside Syria either.
The UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura joined Kerry and Lavrov after their talks and welcomed the deal, which he said he will to take to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and to seek global support for its implementation. Basma Kodmani, of the High Negotiations Committee, told The Associated Press that Russian Federation should pressure Assad to abide by the deal, adding enforcement mechanisms will be needed including the “cessation of hostilities and the grounding (of) regime air forces”.
Washington and Moscow reached the breakthrough deal early on Saturday to try to restore peace in Syria, but air strikes hours later on a busy market place that killed and injured dozens added to rebels’ doubts that any ceasefire could hold. “The shelling goes on night and day, there are targeted killings, besieged cities”, said Abu Abdullah, who lives in Aleppo’s rebel-held east.
The truce deal follows heavy fighting around Aleppo in recent weeks during which the rebels fought unsuccessfully to break the government siege.
Razak, from the rebel Nour al-Din al Zinki Brigades, said they were studying the deal but it appeared it would only give the Syrian army a chance to gather forces and pour more Iranian-backed militias into the main battles raging in Aleppo.
The airstrikes landed in the rebel-held areas of Idlib in the northwest and Aleppo in the north of the country, according to the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
If the ceasefire holds for seven days, United States and Russian Federation forces will turn their sights against al-Nusra, an al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist organization.
The civil war in Syria has its own momentum where even two powerful countries like Russian Federation and the US are unable to bring about a cessation of hostilities – even if both nations were equally intent on doing so.
Both President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Ash Carter have had tough words for Russian Federation in recent days, dimming the prospect of a deal on a ceasefire and closer military cooperation.
(Why the U.S.is supporting allies, even allies of convenience, of al-Qaeda 15 years after 9/11 I’ll never understand; apparently you’d have to ask John Brennan at the CIA).
The United States has also long held that the Syrian leader can not lead any future government, due to the brutal repression of his opponents.
It also does not explain why the group identified as the chief target of the proposed USA and Russian military cooperation would comply with a cease-fire meant to bring about its destruction. It also calls for increased humanitarian aid for the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: “Everything now depends on rapid implementation”.
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“We welcome the agreement”, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
