If the ceasefire holds for seven days and humanitarian deliveries continue, the US would begin discussions with Russian Federation on the establishment of a joint implementation cell.
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But senior US officials said military and intelligence officials and other segments of the administration have serious doubts that Russian Federation will be able to live up to its commitments in the deal, despite Moscow’s long-held desire for military cooperation with the U.S.
Russian Federation repeatedly designates any force opposing Assad as “terrorist”, and in one case repeatedly bombed US -backed rebels despite requests from Washington to implement ceasefire. In July, its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, publicly showed his face for the first time in a video in which he announced the group’s name change and said it was cutting ties with the global terror organization.
It allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at Daesh and Al Qaeda-linked militants with the Jabhat Fatah Al Sham group, earlier known as the Nusra Front, until the United States and Russian Federation take over the task in one week’s time. However, Mr. Assad’s government will be allowed to continue airstrikes against Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and Islamic State fighters.
Lavrov and Kerry also discussed jointly fighting Jabhat Fatah al Sham and Islamic State, the ministry said.
Zakaria Malahifji, of the Aleppo-based rebel group Fastaqim, told Reuters that rebel groups intend to comply with the plan to withdraw 500 metres from the Castello Road in order to make it a neutral space, but the government must also pull back. Russian Federation is a major backer of President Bashar al-Assad, while the United States supports some of the rebel groups fighting to topple him.
Officials declined to talk about where the center would be and how it would actually work. “And if this agreement fails, the Syrian Air Force will know where to go to kill all of those rebels that we’ve been supporting”.
“Separating Nusra Front fighters from mainstream rebels will be very hard”, wrote Frederic C. Hof and Faysal Itani of the Atlantic Council last week.
It’s the second attempt this year to try reduce violence in war-torn Syria where the 5 ½ year conflict has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced half the country’s population of 11 million.
“This is one of the hard parts… to get the opposition to distance itself from al-Nusra [Nusra Front]”, the official said on Tuesday.
If the truce holds for a week, Russian and United States air forces will begin coordinated counterterrorism airstrikes.
Israel said its aircraft attacked a Syrian army position after a stray mortar bomb struck the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, a now-routine Israeli response to the occasional spillover from the war.
Syrian state media reported almost two dozen violations by insurgents, mostly mortar attacks and sniper shots. It said insurgents attacked power lines in the southern Quneitra region, causing a province-wide blackout. A United Nations official said he was hopeful the government would issue them “soon” but had no information on when that might happen.
The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said on Tuesday the United Nations was still waiting for Damascus to issue letters authorising aid deliveries.
Supplies are in warehouses ready for transportation to rebel-held east Aleppo and other besieged areas as soon as they are cleared to enter, said spokeswoman Krista Armstrong of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
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“Hunger is better than humiliation”, read one banner carried by the protesters.
