The US and Russian Federation have announced a breakthrough agreement on Syria that foresees a nationwide ceasefire starting early next week.
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The agreement was announced by the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva yesterday.
“I want to emphasize, this step is absolutely essential, it is a bedrock of this agreement”, Kerry highlighted. Indeed, the USA began bombing Syria in September 2014 explicitly due to the presence of Nusra, which it claimed was planning attacks against the West.
A nationwide ceasefire by Assad’s forces and the USA -backed opposition is set to begin across Syria at sundown Monday.
“No one is building this based on trust”, Kerry said.
To the extent opposition forces have been hit, Moscow says, it is because they have joined with the terrorists.
“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.
He added: “This is just the beginning of our new relations”.
The deal is the culmination months of frenetic diplomacy that included four meetings between Kerry and Lavrov since August 26, and a lengthy face-to-face in China between Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin. The announcement followed a day of discussions between the two countries in Geneva which saw a new military partnership that will target the Islamic state group (ISIS) and al-Qaida.
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.
“Going after Nusra is not a concession to anybody”, Kerry said. “It is profoundly in the interests of the United States”.
A deal hinges on an unlikely U.S.
The agreement came after hours of internal deliberations within the Obama administration over whether to accept the terms of the deal.
“Today we are announcing an arrangement that we think has the capability of sticking but it’s dependent on people’s choices”, Kerry said.
The plan also calls for a demilitarized zone and uncontested access for humanitarian aid.
If the truce holds largely intact for seven days and humanitarian aid begins to flow unimpeded to besieged areas, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States and Russian Federation will then establish a joint center to coordinate their intelligence and air attacks against terrorist targets in Syria. Kerry complained the previous deal’s allowing of strikes against Nusra created problems, and insisted that the new deal will work better, even though Nusra will still be targeted.
Under the plan announced Friday night, Syria’s air force would be grounded in parts of the country in an effort to halt the humanitarian crisis and end the bombing of moderate opposition groups that are supported by the US and its allies in their effort to defeat Islamic State terrorists.
Washington and Moscow will also work to fight ISIL and al-Nusra fighters should the ceasefire in Syria hold seven days.
Mr Lavrov had earlier said he was considering “calling it a day” on talks as frustrations between the two sides boiled over.
Lavrov said he hoped the ceasefire would lead to the prompt resumption of negotiations over Syria’s political future.
Shortly before midnight, Mr Lavrov appeared with several boxes of pizza, saying: “This is from the United States delegation”.
Getting Assad’s government and rebel groups to comply with the deal may now be more hard as fighting rages around Aleppo. On Friday, government forces claimed to have retaken a key transit point leading into the government-controlled western side of Aleppo. The LCC said five were wounded and rescuers continued to sift through the rubble for survivors.
On the other side of the city, shelling by insurgents Friday afternoon killed 10 people. Syrian troops and their allies also retook nearly all the territory lost since a July 31 offensive by the opposition forces in south and southwestern Aleppo province, according to the group, which monitors the conflict through activists on the ground. And there remains a great deal of distrust between Russian Federation and the United States.
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The officials provided the information on condition of anonymity in line with government rules. The Pentagon is backing local ground forces and conducting airstrikes against the Islamic State.
