US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Syrian opposition groups to separate from al-Nusra Front terrorist group and reiterated the call ceasefire in a press briefing on Monday for all parties to the Syrian conflict to join the US-Russian deal on ceasefire in the war-torn country, Sputnik reported. The Obama administration believes a ceasefire leading to negotiations “is the only realistic possible solution”, according to Kerry.
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A cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russian Federation is set to begin at sunset in Syria amid mixed messages of commitment from various rebel factions but with verbal backing by President Bashar Assad’s government.
Russian Federation has said it covers “all” of Syria but “terrorists” will still be targeted. He acknowledged that the arrangement, which went into effect at noon ET, is “less than flawless”.
AFP correspondents in Syria’s devastated second city Aleppo, divided between a rebel-held east and regime-controlled west since mid-2012, said fighting appeared to have stopped as the ceasefire took effect.
Several previous negotiated cease-fires have all eventually collapsed. One group published a video of a dead little boy, who they said was killed in the latest Government attack. The Syrian government, and its allies Russian Federation and Iran, have endorsed the deal.
The Obama administration opposes Assad but wants to shift the focus of fighting from the multi-sided civil war between Assad and his many foes to a campaign against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, an ultra-hardline extremist group that controls swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
The rebels say the deal benefits Assad, who took advantage of the aftermath of the last failed truce hammered out by Washington and Moscow in February to improve his forces’ position on the battlefield. “It could bomb at any moment”, he told Reuters from Aleppo, speaking via a web-based messaging system.
In the hours before the ceasefire took effect, fighting raged on several key frontlines, including Aleppo and the southern province of Quneitra.
The capture of Daraya, a few kilometres (miles) from Damascus, followed years of siege and bombardment and has helped the government secure important areas to the southwest of the capital near an air base.
But in the buildup to the start of the truce, government forces and their allies bombed opposition areas in the north, while al Qaeda-linked militants pushed on with an offensive in the south.
The group, which now calls itself Jabhet Fateh al-Sham, is playing a vital role in the battle for Aleppo allied with other rebel factions, but is still outside the ceasefire.
“While we welcome the latest ceasefire, it is Russian Federation that must make it work by stopping Assad from attacking Syrian civilians, moderate opposition groups and by helping to get humanitarian aid into Aleppo and other cities that are being starved of food”. However, the opposition says a loophole would allow the government to continue air strikes for up to nine days.
Opposition sources quoted by Reuters said that a forthcoming statement supporting the cessation “with harsh reservations” would be backed by “the largest groups”, including Ahrar al-Sham.
A final rocket was sacked from the east into government areas just five minutes before 7:00 pm, while rebel neighbourhoods had not been hit by bombardments for about two hours, they said.
It said the ceasefire shared the flaw that doomed the previous truce: a lack of guarantees or monitoring mechanisms. Jabhat Fatah al-Sham said the deal aimed to weaken the “effective” anti-Assad forces, and to “bury” the revolution.
“We come here today to replace the false freedom they tried to market at the beginning of the crisis, including about Darayya, with the real freedom; the freedom that starts with restoring security and safety, goes through reconstruction and ends with the independent national decision”, Assad said.
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“And we also know in western Aleppo the situation was also huge because while you had some hospitals that could no longer function, you had others that were having to cope with many many more casualties”.
