A Syrian opposition politician said on Wednesday he did not have great confidence that a truce brokered by the United States and Russian Federation would last longer than a previous one that temporarily curbed the fighting earlier this year.
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“There was agreement that as a whole, despite sporadic reports of violence, the arrangement is holding, and violence is significantly lower”, State Department spokesman Mark Toner told a briefing.
The UN estimates that well over half a million people are living under siege in Syria, whose five-year conflict has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced more than 11 million.
The truce agreement has been accepted by the Syrian government and, far more reluctantly, by most of the groups that oppose it, with rebel forces saying that the deal was skewed in favour of President Bashar al-Assad.
Russian Federation said it had recorded 60 rebel violations of the ceasefire, while the opposition said they had recorded 28 serious violations by government troops on Tuesday. Turkish ground forces joined Syrian rebels to expel Islamic State militants from the town last month.
A crucial part of the deal calls on non-extremist rebels to break ranks with Jabhat Fatah Al Sham ahead of joint US-Russian operations against the group.
“We are still optimistic this will happen, but no one knows”, he said.
On Tuesday Jabhat Fateh al-Sham threatened to form an alliance with US -backed and other rebel factions, which would vastly complicate Russian and USA efforts to target the group without also endangering those covered by the agreement.
Disagreements between the warring sides were blocking aid getting into opposition-held eastern Aleppo, Swanson added.
The UN says large amounts of humanitarian aid have still not entered Syria three days after a nationwide ceasefire came into affect. At least 275,000 people in the rebel-held east have been “almost entirely cut off from vital supplies, including food, water, medicine, electricity”, it said.
At that point, Syrian warplanes would also be restricted from flying in an area agreed upon by Moscow and Washington. This news story is related to Latest/150084-Russia-says-to-discuss-extending-Syria-ceasefire-with-US/ – breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne.
Earlier, Russian General Viktor Poznikhir, from the Russian military’s general staff, said the ultraconservative Ahrar Al-Sham group and some other opposition forces were responsible for numerous ceasefire violations.
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A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin welcomed the ceasefire, but believed the “key task” was to make sure moderate opposition groups put themselves apart from the extremists. Armed forces from both sides remain on the routes to the besieged northern Syrian city of Aleppo, preventing truckloads of aid from leaving Turkey until the United Nations is able to negotiate their safe passage, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
