There have been extensive doubts expressed among many entangled in the conflict that the cease-fire, timed to coincide with the start of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, will be respected.
Advertisement
The Feast of the Sacrifice celebrates the value of human life.
More than 2000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group. But Kerry said he’s still cautiously optimistic about this new one.
Combatant sources on both sides said calm was prevailing in the first hours of the ceasefire.
Since last week, IS has been trying to hold territory in a rebel-held area in the Damascus countryside.
When the Syrian Civil War broke out five years ago, multiple rebel groups joined together to fight the Assad government. It aims to allow much-needed aid to reach besieged cities like Aleppo and jump-start peace talks.
The deal, described on Friday by US Secretary of State John Kerry as the “last chance to save a united Syria”, was struck on Friday in Geneva after months of talks between Russian Federation and the US. It contends that the differences between the United States and Russian Federation will force President Barack Obama to leave office with Syrian President Assad still in office.
A main Syrian opposition group linked to several small, moderate rebel factions says they will deal “positively” with the truce brokered by the us and Russian Federation. But Mr. Putin and Mr. Assad have agreed to multiple previous truces, in Syria and, in Mr. Putin’s case, Ukraine – and violated all of them. He has often referred to opposition members seeking his ouster as “terrorists”.
Will this push for peace be any different to previous attempts?
“This catastrophe developed step by step, folks, and it can only be reversed step by step”, he said. A few things we won’t tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING.
The ceasefire gives an opportunity to provide humanitarian relief for hundreds of thousands of Syrians.
For the moment, “calm is prevailing in all areas”, said Ahmad al-Masalmeh, an opposition activist in the southern province of Daraa – where Syria’s crisis began in 2011. “We must be certain the ceasefire is holding with all parties before sending people and trucks into harm’s way”.
The cease-fire is the second negotiated this year by Russian Federation and the United States.
Staffan de Mistura said that no statement from his office about the truce was expected before the following afternoon.
Assad spoke to the state news agency SANA on the streets of Daraya, a Damascus suburb that surrendered to government authority last month. Now the regime is back in charge, after surrounding and pounding it from the air with crude barrel bombs for four years.
Fear also permeates Aleppo, Syria’s once-bustling cultural and economic center that has been largely reduced to rubble.
Advertisement
“If we accept the assumption that the cease-fire will hold, more rebel fighters will be willing and available to fight IS in Aleppo province and perhaps Raqqa as well”, analyst Lund told VOA. Instead, it is best to view the deal as the opening gambit in an attempt to reduce violence and improve the lot of ordinary Syrians, while ensuring that both the opposition and the regime disengage until some political compromise can be found. It appeared to be an intensification of bombardment in the wake of Friday’s ceasefire announcement.
