New US-Russia plan sets Syria ‘cease-fi re’ Feb 27
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WASHINGTON, Feb 22, (Agencies): The United States and Russia agreed Monday on a new cease-fi re for Syria that will take effect on Saturday, US offi cials said. They said the former Cold War foes, which are backing opposing sides in Syria’s civil war, agreed on all the terms and conditions for the “cessation of hostilities” between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and armed opposition groups. Those sides still need to accept the deal. The truce will not cover the Islamic State, the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and any other militias designated as terrorist organizations by the UN Security Council. Both the US and Russia are still targeting those groups with airstrikes.
The war has killed more than 250,000 people, created Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II and allowed the Islamic State to carve out territory across Syria and neighboring Iraq. Independent of Russia, a US-led coalition is carrying out a separate bombing campaigns in Syria, targeting IS militants. An announcement is expected after Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin speak on the matter by telephone Monday, according to the offi cials, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter ahead of time and demanded anonymity. The timing of the cease-fi re is only days ahead of Moscow’s proposal earlier this month for it to start on March 1. Washington rejected that offer at the time, saying it wanted an “immediate cease-fire” and not one that would allow Syria and its Russian backer to make a last-ditch effort for territorial gains in the Arab country’s north and south. While negotiations dragged, however, Russian airstrikes pummeled areas in and around Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.
And Assad’s military made significant gains on the ground. Russia says it is targeting terrorists, but the US and its Arab and European partners say it is mainly hitting “moderate” opposition groups. Syria’s confl ict started with violent government repression of largely peaceful protests five years ago, but quickly became a full-blown rebellion against Assad and a proxy battle between his Shiite-backed government and Sunni-supported rebels. Residents of the Syrian capital earlier Monday expressed skepticism about talk of a “provisional agreement” for a truce, a day after a wave of Islamic State bombings killed about 130 people in government held areas near Damascus and another city.
Details of the tentative cease-fi re between the government and insurgents, announced in Jordan on Sunday by US Secretary of State John Kerry, have not been made public. Even if a truce were to take hold, IS would not be a party to it. The Russian Foreign Ministry put out a statement earlier Monday saying that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kerry spoke two more times by telephone on Sunday and agreed on the parameters for the cease-fi re. The statement said those parameters were then reported to Putin and Obama. No further details were immediately available. The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told The Associated Press on Monday that this week is shaping up as “crucial” for diplomatic efforts to help end the fi ghting, though he declined to provide details of the negotiations. Sunday’s blasts that ripped through the Sayyida Zeinab suburb of Damascus and the central city of Homs were among the deadliest bombings in government-held areas in Syria’s devastating civil war. The Islamic State group claimed both attacks. The extremists are dug in on the outskirts of the two cities and have repeatedly targeted pro-government strongholds. De Mistura condemned the bombings and said it suggested the group is feeling “cornered” amid an intensifi ed diplomatic push to end the fi ve-year war.
The US also condemned the “barbaric terrorist attacks.” Inside the Hamidiyeh Souk, a popular Damascus bazaar which is typically crowded with shoppers, people said they were worried that a cease-fi re would not be evenly observed and could leave the Syrian authorities vulnerable. “I hope there will be no cease-fire, because if there is a cease-fi re, Turks will increase their support for criminals and traitors,” said Ahmad al-Omar from the northern Aleppo province, adding that Turkey may seek to let opposition fighters in via its border with Syria. Others at the bazaar echoed President Bashar Assad’s statements that a ceasefi re could give an advantage to rebel forces and the Islamic State group. “I believe that those proposals now are … a pretext to stop the advance of the Syrian army, which is trying to liberate the homeland,” said Ahmad al-Issa. The Associated Press reported from the bazaar on a government-approved visit.
Elsewhere, Iraq deployed reinforcements to a military base in Anbar on Monday for an impending operation against the Islamic State group in the western province, a senior offi cer said. IS overran large parts of Anbar province in 2014, but Iraqi forces recaptured provincial capital Ramadi from the jihadists and are now setting their sights on areas farther up the Euphrates river valley. “Major military reinforcements … arrived today to the Ain al-Asad base,” army Major General Ali Ibrahim Daboun said.
The forces from the counter-terrorism service and police will take part in an operation in the coming days to retake the town of Heet and the nearby Kubaisa area, Daboun said. The Al-Asad base is located northwest of those areas, while Ramadi, where government forces are also deployed, lies to its southeast. IS overran swathes of Iraq in 2014, but its forces have since regained signifi cant ground from the jihadists with the help of US-led air strikes. The UN mission in Iraq said on Monday that bombs planted by the Islamic State group are hindering the return of displaced families to the country’s western city of Ramadi, nearly two months since Iraqi forces, aided by US-led coalition airstrikes and Sunni fi ghters took it back from the extremists.
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