The Syrian army has said it would abide by the cease-fire, but will defend against any violations.
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If Washington feels that credible violations are occurring it reserves the right to turn back the clock to zero and restart the seven-day period, Toner said.
It is too early to tell whether the truce will hold and the calm last, but after five years of war Syrians are clinging to this moment of hope.
He said aid for rebel-held eastern Aleppo is a top priority, and that a key concern about the overall cease-fire is whether sporadic “incidents” snowball to threaten the deal.
On Saturday, presumed Russian or government airstrikes on rebel-held Idlib and Aleppo provinces killed over 90 civilians, including 13 children in an attack on a marketplace in Idlib, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Syrian government has said it will reject any aid deliveries to the city not coordinated through itself and the United Nations, particularly from Turkey, which has backed the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
“We need 60 tonnes of flour each day”, he said.
Despite the ceasefire appearing to hold up, many people reportedly remained fearful of stepping outside their house on Eid al-Adha.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that aid to the besieged city of Aleppo would start immediately.
“It’s excellent but I certainly have no confidence in the regime”.
It is the second major attempt by world powers to curb the fighting that has killed almost half a million people and spawned a humanitarian crisis stretching from the Middle East to Europe.
“In his comments, Mr.de Mistura also highlighted a timeline, saying that if the 48-hour benchmark worked out ” including agreed-upon humanitarian access, with no bombs and more trucks ” ” followed by the creation of a joint command centre between Russian Federation and the USA to plan air operations in the country, a meeting on Syria may take place in NY during the General Assembly, and then a Security Council session on 21 September. It said two Syrian soldiers were killed and another wounded in a separate attack in Aleppo. Earlier he performed Muslim holiday prayers alongside other officials in a bare hall in a Daraya mosque.
But people “are skeptical about whether it is going to work”, he said.
The ceasefire, negotiated by the United States and Russian Federation, appears to be holding in its early stages, although many observers believe its efficacy will only become clearer as Tuesday progresses. All previous diplomatic initiatives have collapsed in failure.
The ceasefire deal is backed by foreign countries ranging from Assad’s ally Iran to Turkey, one of the main supporters of groups fighting to overthrow him.
But the most powerful rebel groups have shown deep misgivings over the cease-fire deal, which was crafted without their input last weekend in Geneva between the top USA and Russian diplomats.
The Syrian White Helmets which conduct rescue operations in Syria, however, blamed the government or its allies for continuing to carry out strikes after the ceasefire came into force, releasing a video allegedly showing rescue operations taking place after the truce began.
The deal calls for a halt to the violence between the Syrian regime and rebel forces, but does not cover militant groups considered terrorists, such as ISIS and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al Nusra Front. The Syrian Arab Air Force has been dropping barrel bombs on civilian areas under the pretext of targeting militants.
One of Syria’s most powerful factions, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham’s battlefield alliance with other insurgent groups makes it hard for the United States to target them without the danger of inflicting harm to other opposition groups. However, the opposition says a loophole would allow the government to continue air strikes for up to nine days.
Assad made his defiant remarks Monday during a symbolic visit to the former rebel stronghold of Daraya, a now-devastated Damascus suburb.
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The “truce suffers from a lack of mechanisms to implement it on the ground” and the lack of any system to punish violations, he said.
