“The U.S. has informed us and has received our opinion”.
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It said it would coordinate with Russia to decide which groups and areas would be included in the “cessation of hostilities” plan which is due to take effect on Saturday according to the US-Russian plan. However, they say they are not necessarily opposed to another one.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu greeted the “cessation of hostilities” agreement that aims to end the five-year conflict.
The official did not give further information about when the talks would resume. He also called upon non-State armed groups and listed terrorist groups to fulfil their obligations. Daesh and al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, the Nusra Front, are excluded from the cease-fire as well as other unspecified UN Security Council-designated terrorist organizations.
On Wednesday, UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien told the UN Security council that the WFP had carried out a successful airdrop into Deir Ezzor – where some 200,000 people live under siege in the government held city that is surrounded by the Islamic State.
He said teams from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent on the ground confirmed that “pallets have landed in the target area as planned”.
But he said the United Nations is still waiting for approval to reach 170,000 additional people in besieged areas and “we expect those approvals to happen immediately”. “This decision was taken after a close consultation with our Russian friends”, Mekdad said in an interview with the Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen television channel.
The Russian military said it is negotiating the cessation of hostilities in some areas as part of efforts to implement the ceasefire deal brokered by the United States and Russia.
The Syrian army showed off an area on Wednesday it claims was retaken from Nusra fighters, but U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army rebels say it’s their fighters being pummelled by indiscriminate Syrian bombing in Daraya, and that Nusra has “no presence” in the region.
Syria’s government has blasted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for comments made a day earlier during testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Syria has remained locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime of President Bashar al-Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. “The Syrian people have seen their country torn apart, loved ones killed or injured, and millions of people displaced, either inside the country or in the region and beyond”, he said.
Erdogan says that Turkey supports a “cease-fire that will allow our Syrian brothers to breathe”.
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While IS control over territory is relatively clear and stable, Al-Nusra works closely with many other rebels groups, particularly in the north.
