The United States and Russian Federation early today announced an agreement on a plan to reduce violence in Syria, urging a ceasefire starting at sundown on Monday and a move towards a political transition.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this deal is “just the beginning” of a new relationship with the USA and Russia. “We and the USA commit to doing everything we can to make sure all sides” fulfill their obligations, he said.
“It is the primary responsibility of the leading powers, first of all Russian Federation and the United States.to do everything to create the necessary conditions to settle this very hard conflict”, he said, “despite all the problems that have arisen”.
The final announcement included some last-minute drama as the press conference announcing the deal was delayed several times.
Speaking after Kerry, Lavrov said Syria’s government is aware of the agreement and has agreed to abide by it.
US, Russia tussle over Syria deal was posted in World of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on September 10, 2016 and was last updated on September 10, 2016.
A “bedrock” of the agreement, Kerry said, is Russia’s ensuring that Assad’s air force will no longer fly combat missions over opposition and civilian areas. “That should put an end to the barrel bombs, and an end to the indiscriminate bombing, and it has the potential to change the nature of the conflict”. Amid the chaos of fighting between Syria’s government and rebels, ISIS has emerged as a global terror threat.
Unless rebel groups that now cooperate with Nusra militants immediately end that cooperation, they will become legitimate targets in the eyes of the U.S.
Kerry said that the truce would come into force on Monday, the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid and that if it lasted a week the United States would begin cooperation with Russian forces to target the Nusra Front and Islamic State groups.
Fighting forces are to also pull back from the Costello Road, a key thoroughfare and access route into Aleppo, and create a “demilitarized zone” around it.
“Working together, Russian Federation and the United States and our teams, have devised what we think is a more prescriptive and far-reaching approach than we have been able to put together to date”, Kerry said. “Not indiscriminately, but in a strategic, precise and judicious manner so they can not continue to use the regime’s indiscriminate bombing to rally people to their hateful crimes”.
“If groups within the legitimate opposition want to retain their legitimacy, they need to distance themselves in every way possible from Nusra and Daesh”, Kerry added.
“This requires halting all attacks, including aerial bombardments, and any attempts to gain additional territory at the expense of the parties to the cessation”.
If the Syrian regime and opposition can stop fighting for seven days, Russian Federation and the US will start targeting ISIS and al-Nusra together.
Washington wants concrete steps from Russian Federation to force Assad to stop bombing Syrian citizens, respect a ceasefire and lift the siege of the northern city of Aleppo. The Pentagon is backing local ground forces and conducting airstrikes against the Islamic State.
The spokesman added that if Moscow fails to keep the commitments under Friday’s deal, a potential military cooperation between the US and Russian Federation would not occur.
Kerry said he believed the plan could lead to talks to “stop the conflict”, which has raged for more than five years, killing more than 400,000 and displacing millions. And the task may be getting even more hard as fighting rages around the divided city of Aleppo, Syria’s most populous and the new focus of a conflict that has killed as many as 500,000 people.
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United Nations envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura welcomed the agreement and said he hoped the deal would help “renewed efforts to reach a Syrian-owned and Syrian-led political settlement of the conflict”.
