Russia, whose military intervention in Syria over seven months ago bolstered President Bashar al-Assad, also agreed to press the Syrian government to “minimize aviation” operations over areas mostly inhabited by civilians or rebel groups that have signed up to the cease-fire.
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The U.S. and Russian Federation pledged to maintain a fragile cease-fire set to expire Monday in Syria, including in the key city of Aleppo, in a bid to keep alive efforts to end five years of civil war.
They’re using a joint statement to show they’re still committed to holding the truce together and resuming peace talks to end Syria’s civil war.
The extremist groups the Nusra Front, Al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, and its more powerful rival the Islamic State group, are not included in the cease-fire agreement.
The Syrian government has blamed the rebels in Aleppo for violating the truce, while oppositions accused Syrian warplanes of striking rebel-held areas in the eastern part of the city.
Speaking to US Secretary of State John Kerry on the phone on Monday, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said that measures must be taken to stop “extremists” in Syria being supplied via Turkish territory. In recent rounds of talks, Damascus has refused to broach the topic of the Syrian presidency, despite acknowledging the necessity of a new constitution, a political transition and national elections. “They are not actions”, Kerry said.
A temporary ceasefire between Syrian regime troops and rebel groups came into force last week in Syria’s second city Aleppo, after an earlier cessation of hostilities from February 27 had collapsed.
The Syrian army announced on Monday extending a cease-fire in the northern city of Aleppo for additional 48 hours, state news agency SANA reported.
“We also intend to enhance efforts to promote humanitarian assistance to all people in need”.
The latest assault on Khan Touman was launched by an alliance of Sunni Islamist rebels known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which has rejected diplomatic efforts to bring about a lasting ceasefire.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll is expected to rise as some of the wounded are in critical condition.
UN-brokered talks on the conflict held in Geneva fell apart three weeks ago when Syria’s main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) suspended its formal participation.
Yet in many places those groups are fighting alongside Western-backed rebels, leading to accusations of violations that allowed the cease-fire to slowly unravel. Monday’s airstrikes came a day after opposition fighters shelled the government-held neighbourhood of Midan, killing a child, state media and activists said.
Jaish al-Islam agreed with a rival rebel group, Failaq al Rahman, that both would vacate a town they have been fighting over for nearly two weeks, the Observatory said.
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Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.
