Salem Al Meslet says the alliance known as the High Negotiations Committee is holding open meetings in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and is seeking guarantees and clarifications from the United States about the mechanism for the implementation of the agreement. This may quickly derail the deal, as the opposition and its supporters have already said they are concerned the Syrian government and Russian Federation will continue to strike at mainstream rebels under the pretext of hitting Nusra during the cease-fire.
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Jihadists carried out their deadliest attack in the war on Sunday, when 134 people – most civilians – were killed in a series of blasts near Damascus claimed by the Islamic State group.
Abu Ibrahim, a commander in the 10th Brigade opposition force in northwestern Latakia province, predicted “numerous rebel groups” would reject the agreement, which was formed “without consulting any factions on the ground”. “Will Russia work in good faith, will Iran work in good faith to try to bring about the political transition?”
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey has grown increasingly frustrated by the global response to Syria’s five-year-old war, incensed by a Russian intervention which has tipped the balance of power in favor of Ankara’s arch-enemy Assad and by US support for a Kurdish militia it sees as a hostile insurgent force.
A YPG spokesman said yesterday that Kurdish forces would respect the ceasefire but fight back if attacked. But the government and its allies will be permitted to forge on with strikes against jihadist militants of Islamic State and an al Qaeda-linked group, the Nusra Front.
The bombings came as President Barack Obama warned Damascus and its key ally Moscow that the “world will be watching”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that around 400,000 people had died and 12 million people been displaced since the war started.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Syrian President Bashar Assad Wednesday, inserting himself in the center of political action suggesting the U.S.-Russia ceasefire could stand a chance of lasting since Russia entered the conflict with airstrikes at the end of September.
Obama stressed the agreement to halt fighting did not apply to the US-led fight against Islamic State.
And he vowed to defeat the so-called Islamic State (IS), which he said was “not a caliphate but a crime ring”.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that two villages were taken by the government troops, saying they are working to open the only road linking the city of Aleppo with central and western Syria.
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SANA says the army took the town of Khanaser on Thursday, after three days of heavy battles with the extremist group.
