Syria’s top opposition grouping - the Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC) - said Friday that 97 opposition factions had signed on “to respect a temporary truce”, but reiterated that it was only agreeing to an initial two-week period. “Humanitarian deliveries must not depend on political negotiations but must be allowed to continue and increase regardless of any truce or ceasefire,” he said. International Committee of the Red Cross chief Peter Maurer told AFP in Damascus he hoped the ceasefire would open up previously inaccessible areas. “Negotiations are the ones conducted on the battlefield.”ĭiplomats are reported to be working to define areas that will fall under the partial truce and to set up monitoring mechanisms. “Beware of this trick from the West and America,” he said in an audio message. The complexity of Syria’s battlefields - where moderate and Islamist rebel forces often fight alongside jihadist groups such as the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front - has raised serious doubts about the feasibility of a ceasefire.Īl-Nusra’s chief Mohammad al-Jolani on Friday urged Assad’s opponents to reject it and instead intensify attacks on the regime. “I don’t know how to put it any better than saying: ‘It’s put up or shut up time,'” he told reporters. US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington had received assurances from Moscow that it would not bomb the “moderate opposition” after the truce. “We are seriously concerned over the future of the ceasefire because of the continuing Russian air raids and ground attacks by forces of Assad,” presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in Ankara. The intensified attacks prompted Turkey, a key supporter of opposition forces, to express worries over the viability of the ceasefire. “We understand fully and take into account that this will be a complicated, and maybe even contradictory process of reconciliation, but there is no other way.” “The decisive fight against them will, without doubt, be continued,” Putin said in televised remarks. Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted Moscow would continue targeting “terrorist groups”. There were at least 26 airstrikes on Eastern Ghouta including 10 on its main city of Douma which was facing heavy regime shelling, it said. The Observatory said there had been Russian strikes on rebel bastions including the Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus, northern Homs province and the west of Aleppo province. Russia launched airstrikes in Syria last September saying it was targeting “terrorists”, but critics have accused Moscow of hitting rebel forces in support of Assad. Russia began air strikes in Syria in September saying it was targeting “terrorists”, but critics have accused Moscow of hitting rebel forces in support of the regime.He also said at least 40 members of the regime forces had been killed battling rebels in northern Latakia province, Assad’s heartland, in the 24 hours before the ceasefire. A spokesman for Turkey’s presidency expressed worries over the ceasefire “because of the continuing Russian air raids and ground attacks by forces of (President Bashar al-) Assad”. US Ambassador Samantha Power acknowledged there was “some scepticism” as to whether the ceasefire would last, but said it offered the “best chance to reduce the violence”. “If it continues like this, maybe we can go home.” Less than an hour before the ceasefire, the UN Security Council gave its unanimous backing to the truce in a resolution drafted by the US and Russia. “I can’t hide the fact that I’m happy the war has stopped, even for a few minutes,” 24-year-old regime soldier Abdel Rahman Issa said from the battlefield Jobar area on the eastern outskirts of Damascus. Intermittent clashes between pro-regime forces and both groups continued after the ceasefire began, the Observatory said, as well as fighting between jihadists and Kurdish forces.
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