The United States and Russian Federation could approve Syrian government air strikes as part of a new nationwide ceasefire, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday, coming closer than any American official has to suggesting indirect USA co-operation with President Bashar Assad’s government since Syria’s civil war started five years ago.
Advertisement
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.
The Observatory estimates the death toll since the start of the conflict at around 430,000, in line with United Nations estimates. Some 11 million people have been made homeless in the world’s worst refugee crisis.
The opposition Free Syrian Army group has said that while it will “co-operate positively” with the ceasefire, it was concerned it would benefit the government.
The most delicate parts of the agreement, brokered by the United States and Russian Federation, were to avoid the fighting snowballing and to disengage armed opposition groups that are observing the truce from those that are not.
Rebels on Sunday sent a letter to Washington saying they would “deal positively with the idea of the ceasefire” but listed several “concerns” and stopped short of a full endorsement. But the group’s founder, Rami Abdulrahman, said the actual number of deaths is closer to 430,000.
As the cease-fire came into effect, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that rebel factions must distance themselves from the al-Qaida-linked militants, whose group recently changed its name from Nusra to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, or Levant Conquest Front.
Outside the scope of the truce, Turkey said on Tuesday that air strikes by a USA -led coalition had killed three fighters from Islamic State.
The agreement has been accepted by Assad and, far more reluctantly, by most of the groups that oppose him.
The global community’s first goal is to deliver aid to civilians in Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city before the war, which has been divided for years and where the opposition area is under siege.
But de Mistura told reporters in Geneva that no humanitarian aid trucks had yet moved across the Turkish border into Syria, adding that United Nations officials were awaiting assurances that drivers of aid trucks will be “unhindered and untouched”.
One monitoring group reports five violations occurred in and around Aleppo in the ceasefire’s first two hours, while state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said rebels were responsible for two violations in the city.
Brahimi was the United Nations envoy for Syria from 2012 until 2014, when he was succeeded by incumbent Staffan de Mistura.
These types of violations are not uncommon, and it’s not necessarily a measure of success in a ceasefire – the world usually hopes that these brief respites in violence can help those in areas like Aleppo get the humanitarian aid they so desperately need.
The Syrian Army said the truce would be applied throughout Syria for seven days, but that it reserved the right to respond decisively to any violation by armed groups.
The Observatory said pro-government forces had shelled near two villages in the south Aleppo countryside and a neighborhood on the outskirts of Damascus.
But the reports of violence were far less intense than normal. A Turkish official said they carried mostly food and flour.
The Syrian regime on Tuesday warned that all aid going to Aleppo, particularly assistance sent by Turkey, must be coordinated with Damascus and the UN.
A second senior US official said there were some “technical issues” to be resolved before the trucks could proceed.
The head of the city council for opposition-held Aleppo expressed concern that planned deliveries would be conducted according to Russian wishes and would not meet the needs of an estimated 300,000 people living there.
Advertisement
The Syrian military says its forces have shot down two Israeli aircraft – a warplane and a drone – near the Israeli-controlled part of the Golan Heights.
