US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that a provisional agreement had been reached with Russian Federation on the terms of a ceasefire in Syria.
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Kerry, speaking in Amman on Sunday alongside Nasser Judeh, Jordan’s foreign minister, said he had spoken earlier that morning with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, about the agreement.
In online statements, the IS group said it had carried out the bombings in the 60-Street at the al-Zahra’ neighborhood in the central province of Homs, which killed over 57 people and wounded tens of others.
The reason the West denies this, is because “al-Nusra Front is especially embedded in and allied with all of the so-called moderate rebel groups”, including the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), Jaish al-Islam or the Ahrar al-Sham, he said.
On the ground, there was no cessation of hostilites Sunday.
He said the use of food as an instrument and weapon of war is “a war crime, and we put the regime on notice today that we will watch closely for the full compliance with this global objective” that has been ratified within the UN Security Council by unanimous vote.
A few hours later in suburban Damascus several more bombs went off. ISIS said it planted them too.
Mr Kerry’s announcement came a day after the High Negotiations Committee, a Syrian opposition bloc comprising political and militant groups, said it would agree to a temporary ceasefire if Syrian president Bashar Al Assad’s main backers, Russian Federation and Iran, guaranteed to stop fighting.
Lavrov and Kerry further discussed humanitarian aid issues and the planned cessation of hostilities across Syria, “with the exception of fighting terrorist groups”. The State Department spokesman said Hammond also updated Kerry on a Brussels summit in which diplomats agreed to grant Britain “special status” in the European Union so it can set new limits on benefits for future immigrants from elsewhere in Europe and adopt other measures independent of the organization. In late January, explosions near a Shi’ite shrine in the same area killed dozens more.
The television report said Sunday’s blasts struck in the pro-government neighborhood of Zahraa – a frequent target for similar explosions.
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He also shrugged off criticism about the failure of diplomatic efforts to end a convoluted conflict that has drawn in global and regional powers and triggered the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, saying critics have offered no workable alternative.
