Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake points out that the Pentagon and the USA intelligence community are deeply skeptical about sharing intelligence with the Russians on Syria.
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“Now that said”, Kirby continued, “we understand that certain of them have doubts, have concerns”. Hours after it came into force, a coalition of rebel factions put out a statement that stopped short of committing to the cease-fire, a reflection of their distrust of the government.
The United States accepted the 10,000th refugee from Syria in late August as part of President Obama’s policy to vastly increase the number of humanitarian admissions from the war-torn country.
A feature of the war in Syria and Iraq is that the anti-Isis and anti-al-Nusra armies – the YPG, Syrian Army, Iraqi Army and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga – all rely on foreign air forces. All previous diplomatic initiatives have collapsed in failure. Indeed, Russians and Americans see what constitutes the key part of the agreement differently. The State Department quickly reversed itself.
Under the cease-fire deal, during an initial period, all attacks are to stop except Syrian government attacks on those two jihadi groups.
“The earliest reports are that there is some reduction in violence as well as a few reports of fighting here and there though it is far too early to draw any definitive conclusions”, Kerry told reporters at the State Department. “There will undoubtedly be reports of violations here or there but that is the nature of the beginning of the ceasefire nearly always.” .
Saleem al-Bughdady carries the body of his dead daughter, Nour, who died in an airstrike attack on Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Aug. 23, 2016. Seeking to justify the need for such secrecy, Lavrov said, “We can’t make these documents public, for they contain quite serious and sensitive information”.
Various militants backed by the USA and its Arab allies coordinate and even fight sometimes alongside al-Qaida-linked militants.
Under the agreement, Russian-backed government forces and opposition groups, which are supported by the United States and Gulf States, would halt fighting for a while as a confidence building measure.
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, an ultra-hardline jihadist group that controls swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
Under the strained truce, which took effect on Monday evening amidst reports of minor violations, the Syrian government must refrain from fighting in areas where “moderate” rebels are deployed.
Speaking in a interview broadcast by state media from Daraya, a Damascus suburb retaken from rebels by government forces, he said the Syrian state was “determined to recover every area from the terrorists”.
“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.
Backed by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, the army has also completely encircled the rebel-held half of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war, which has been divided into government and opposition-held zones for years.
The proposed truce was announced on Saturday after marathon talks by the Russian and United States foreign ministers. They include a cessation of hostilities, the delivery of humanitarian aid and the eventual launch of joint military operations by the United States and Russian Federation against terrorist groups. The armed opposition is nonetheless committed to complying “because it is incredibly important that aid reaches people and that there is a decrease in the numbers of people dying”, Yusuf said. So even if this ceasefire holds, and everybody gets together to fight the bad guys, it isn’t always clear who the bad guys are. “But as a final takeaway, we do agree”.
“This is very much a Putin deal”, says Azm.
According to the timetable laid out by Kerry and Lavrov, if the cease-fire holds for seven consecutive days and humanitarian aid flows unimpeded to besieged areas, then Moscow and Washington will start working out plans to conduct joint military operations.
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If the truce holds for one week, the United States and Russian Federation will then work together to develop military strikes against jihadists such as the so-called Islamic State group and former Al-Qaeda ally Fateh al-Sham.
