However, the cease-fire does not apply to attacks on the Islamic State group.
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Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said on Thursday that he hopes the Security Council will adopt a resolution endorsing the agreement at next week’s high-level General Assembly meeting, which draws leaders from around the globe.
The ceasefire has been marred by a lack of humanitarian aid deliveries, sporadic violence, including 3 civilians killed Friday, and increasing friction between Moscow and Washington.
John Kerry, the USA secretary of state, conveyed the message to Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, in a phone call.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry denied on Saturday that government of President Bashar al-Assad was blocking aid access to the divided city of Aleppo.
“The secretary made clear that the United States will not establish the Joint Implementation Center with Russian Federation unless and until the agreed terms for humanitarian access are met”, spokesman John Kirby said in a written statement.
The delivery of humanitarian aid is a key part of a US-Russia ceasefire deal in effect since Monday.
Putin also suggested the US was taking a “very risky route” trying to maintain the combat potential of rebels fighting the Syrian government and expressed that the USA could not separate moderate rebels from “the half-criminal and terrorist elements”. The state-run Anadolu news agency says three USA flags were hung on Thursday around a compound of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, and were still visible from Turkey on Friday afternoon. Rebels, however, claimed Syrian troops attacked the area first.
“This is one of the most serious violations of the cease-fire”, al-Shami said via Skype.
ISIL is another acronym for the ISIS group.
The Syrian government said it has done all that is necessary to facilitate the entry of aid convoys to Aleppo, but that armed groups have failed to withdraw from the supply routes and are committing “dangerous, provocative acts”.
The Russian Defence Ministry said earlier that coalition warplanes had killed 62 Syrian servicemen and injured 100 others, TASS reported.
“Since we could not agree on an approach to briefing the council that would not compromise the operational security of the arrangement, the meeting was canceled”, a spokesman for the USA mission said. The closed-door consultations had been called after Russia’s envoy to the United Nations said Moscow wanted a United Nations resolution to endorse the deal.
Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army rebels are pushing south in northern Syria from the towns of al-Rai and Azaz towards the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab, supported by tanks and jets, security sources said, clashing with the jihadist group.
Government forces and rebels were engaged in fierce fighting near the capital Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Khan Sheikhun, like most of the surrounding province, is controlled by an alliance of rebels, hardline Islamists and jihadists such as Fateh al-Sham.
Earlier on Friday, rebels and government forces engaged in heavy shelling across front lines on the outskirts of Damascus, killing at least two fighters.
He appeared to be referring to the Fatah al-Sham Front, an al-Qaida-linked group previously known as the Nusra Front, which is deeply embedded in rebel-held areas and fights alongside more moderate groups.
The Observatory said 3 Islamist fighters and 4 members of the regime forces were killed.
So far that is not the case and along the northern border with Turkey aid convoys remain blocked.
“There is no change”, said Zakariya Malahifji, an official for a rebel group in Aleppo on Saturday, asked whether there had been any move by the army to withdraw from positions along the road.
“As humanitarians this is immensely frustrating”.
He urged the United States to compel rebels to separate themselves on the ground from allied fighters from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham – a jihadist group known as al-Nusra Front until it formally broke off ties with al-Qaeda in July. “The world is watching”, Swanson said.
Washington and Moscow are already trading blame over who is responsible.
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“And the chief obstacle to that has been the Assad regime”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
