US And Russia Agree New Ceasefire Plan In Syria
MEP: Russia and the United States have agreed on a new ceasefire plan in Syria to find a political solution to the years-long crisis in the Arab country as well as cooperation on strikes against jihadists.
The announcement follows talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov during a joint press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, in the early hours of Saturday after some 13 hours of marathon talks on the Syrian crisis.
“Today, Sergei Lavrov and I, on behalf of our presidents and our countries call on every Syrian stakeholder to support the plan that the United States and Russia have reached, to … bring this catastrophic conflict to the quickest possible end through a political process,” Kerry said.
According to Kerry, the plan is to ensure that Syrian government forces will not carry out combat missions where the so-called moderate opposition is present.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that despite continuing mistrust, the two sides had developed five documents that would enable coordination of the fight against armed groups and a revival of Syria’s failed truce in an enhanced form.
“Despite the mistrust and attempt to disrupt what we have agreed upon, we managed to work out a package of documents; there are five of them. It allows us to set an effective coordination in the fight against terrorism, to expand the humanitarian access to distressed population, first and foremost in Aleppo,” Lavrov further said.
Mr Lavrov said Russia had informed the Syrian government about the arrangements and the Syrian government was “ready to fulfil them”.
US Secretary said the nationwide truce would be enforced on Monday, the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice), which marks the culmination of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
He also said if the upcoming truce lasted for a week, Washington would commence military cooperation with Russian forces to target the Takfiri terrorist groups of Daesh ISIS/ISIL) and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch formerly known as al-Nusra Front.
According to the agreement, both Syrian government and opposition forces will “be required to provide safe, unhindered and sustainable humanitarian, commercial and civilian access to eastern and western Aleppo,” Kerry noted.
Rebels are actively preventing the safe passage of humanitarian aid to civilians in Aleppo, Lavrov said, adding that opposition groups stationed there are threatening to attack Russian humanitarian convoys.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
