The pizza that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave to journalists as they were expecting the end of talks on Syria was presented to him by the United States delegation to apologize for the prolonged pause in negotiations, Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page on Saturday, TASS reported.
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They agreed on a new nationwide ceasefire for Syria, starting from Monday.
“We hope this will be the beginning of the end of the civilians’ ordeal”, Bassma Kodmani, a leading member of the opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee, said.
After the “cessation of hostilities”, which will begin on the Muslim holiday Eid on Monday, the USA and Russian Federation will cooperate in a Joint Intelligence Group to go after the Nusra Front, which recently claimed to have broken from al-Qaida, renaming itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham in a last-ditch effort to stave off joint U.S.
The two powers back opposite sides of the conflict, with Moscow supporting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the U.S. behind a coalition of rebel groups it regards as moderate. The US and Russian Federation will then begin intelligence sharing and targeting coordination, while Assad’s air and ground forces will be restricted to running operations against ISIS only.
The United States and Russian Federation, ultimately, are to find themselves fighting together against the Islamic State group and Nusra, and embarking on unprecedented information-sharing – aimed at dispelling longstanding mistrust between the two powers over the Syria conflict.
Turkey is hailing a new U.S.
“The Syrian government has approved the agreement, and a cessation of hostilities will begin in Aleppo for humanitarian reasons”, the SANA news agency reported Saturday.
Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, one of the most powerful factions in Syria, is part of the Fatah Army coalition that played an instrumental role in the fighting against Assad’s forces over the past year in northern Syria.
Kerry said this “new equation” offers an opportunity to find a peaceful solution and reverse the current trend of “creating more terrorists” and more destruction.
Apart from the ceasefire, the arrangement also requires Moscow to pressure Assad’s government to halt all offensive operations against Syria’s armed opposition in certain areas, which were not detailed.
Lavrov said through a translator, “The Syrian government has been informed of these arrangements and is ready to fulfill them”.
Truces agreed in the past have collapsed after both sides failed to hold up their ends of the bargain.
“Going after Nusra is not a concession to anybody”, Kerry said. That sets off a seven-day period that will allow for humanitarian aid and civilian traffic into Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and commercial capital, which has faced a recent onslaught. “It is profoundly in the interests of the United States”. He then presented journalists with several boxes of pizza, saying, “This is from the USA delegation”, and two bottles of vodka, adding, “This is from the Russian delegation”.
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Kerry told reporters that “bedrock” of the agreement, is Russian Federation s ensuring that Assad’s air force will no longer fly combat missions over opposition and civilian areas. Forty days of fighting in the city have killed almost 700 civilians, including 160 children, the Associated Press reported.
