Diplomats aim for temporary Syria truce in a week

Diplomats trying to secure a cease-fire for the civil war in Syria fell short early Friday in organizing a truce but agreed to try to work out details and implement a temporary “cessation of hostilities” in a week’s time.

Under the United Nations security council resolution passed in December, any ceasefire would automatically exclude ISIL, the local al-Qaeda branch Jabhat al-Nusra, which operates throughout rebel territory, and other UN-designated terrorist groups. However, there must be severe scepticism about whether the Russians intend to stop the bombardment of rebel positions in and around Aleppo, the country’s biggest city before the war, that have resulted in regime forces on the ground (mainly Iranian-backed Shia militias and some Alawite units of the Syrian army) nearly completely cutting it off from the Turkish border.

It has the potential to be the first diplomatic breakthrough in a conflict that has fractured the Middle East, killed at least 250,000 people, made 11 million homeless and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing into Europe.

However he, together with U.S. secretary of state John Kerry, United Nations special envoy Staffan de Mistura and other members of the ISSG, acknowledged that the outcome of the agreement will depend on whether all parties to the conflict honour its terms.

The BBC reports that a task force chaired by the U.S. and Russian Federation will work to implement the truce through consultations with Syria’s rival groups, with aid deliveries for besieged Syrian communities due to begin as early as Friday.

The comments came on the eve of a summit of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) in Munich on Thursday where major powers aimed at coming to an agreement on a cessation of hostilities. “We must see action on the ground”. Moscow has always said that those two jihadist groups are the only targets of its air campaign.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to retake the entire country but warned it could take a “long time”, in an exclusive interview with AFP that comes as global pressure grows for a ceasefire.

The communique added that sustained humanitarian aid would begin this week to various besieged areas of Syria. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Kurdish advance was backed by Russian air strikes. ISIS, al Nusra, al-Queda and other terror groups would keep fighting. Nothing, yet. It’s important to recognize that these agreements are made between proxy parties, and not the actual warring parties. Trouble is, the internecine struggle between the Assad regime and several disparate rebel groups, and the regional and global powers, has taken its toll on innocent civilians: perhaps as many as half a million people have died while the number displaced from their homes amounts to perhaps 13.5 million. And he was stony-faced, as he always is, when Secretary Kerry talked about what Russia’s doing in this indiscriminate bombing campaign is simply backing up a Syrian government that’s forcing towns to surrender through starvation.

The German Foreign Minister is a veteran of high-stakes talks with Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He says that “we will achieve” political change in the country.

He’s to be joined by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir.