Russia-US plan ‘last chance to save united Syria’ – Kerry

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the deal would allow efficient co-operation in the struggle against terrorism, and expand humanitarian access to Syria’s worst-hit towns and cities.

Rebel groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad issued a joint statement listing deep reservations with the agreement they described as unjust, echoing concerns outlined in a letter to the United States on Sunday.

The government has made no comment on the agreement, but Syrian state media quoted what it called private sources as saying the government had given its approval. The pact spells out a process that intends – at least according to the Obama administration – to culminate in Assad’s departure.

Syrian army on Monday announced a seven-day nationwide ceasefire, state news agency SANA reported. That sets in motion a sequence of events meant to lead to new negotiations for a possible transition away from Assad’s rule.

The parties agreed that if a ceasefire works for a week-long initial period, the United States and Russian Federation would establish a Joint Implementation Center, where the countries would share data and begin to bomb militants in Syria.

Assad made a rare public appearance on Monday, attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha at a mosque in the suburb of Daraya, which surrendered last month after four years of government siege.

Malahfki added that he had not received a response from the U.S. government. Government forces will be allowed to fight defensively and to target the Islamic State group, only.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said the USA wouldn’t cooperate with Assad.

If the planned cessation of hostilities holds for seven days, it will be followed by an unlikely military partnership between the USA and Russian Federation to target Islamic State and al Qaeda.

Syria’s opposition has still not given a formal response to the cease-fire agreement, but rebel representatives say they have told US officials they plan to comply with the cessation of hostilities and expect to make an announcement in the coming hours.

“Russian military activity in Syria has supported the Assad regime, a regime which bombs, tortures and starves its own people”, Sir Michael said. A copy of the letter was given to The Associated Press by an opposition official.

The agreement also includes the creation of a demilitarized zone around Syria’s Aleppo to deliver humanitarian aid to the city, as well as close coordination of Russian and United States airstrikes against Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, and Daesh terrorist groups operating in Syria. The armed opposition is nonetheless committed to complying “because it is incredibly important that aid reaches people and that there is a decrease in the numbers of people dying”, Yusuf said.

Upticks in violence also have occurred before previous attempts to impose truces in the conflict.

Previous cease-fires were also preceded by soaring violence as parties on all sides sought to improve their positions before the pause in fighting. “This is not something we could ever envision doing”, he said.

That same roadblock makes prospects for a peace dim even if the cease-fire does hold, said Syria analyst Aron Lund.

“Regarding a truce, a ceasefire, the delivery of aid, this is a moral question and there is no debate around this, we absolutely welcome this, but there are other articles around which there are reservations”, said Zakaria Malahifji of an Aleppo-based rebel faction.

But distinguishing rebels protected by the ceasefire from jihadists who are excluded from it is tricky, particularly with regards to a group formerly called the Nusra Front, which was al Qaeda’s Syria branch until it changed its name in July.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said early reports suggested there had been some reduction in violence.

The airstrikes landed in the rebel-held areas of Idlib in the northwest and Aleppo in the north of the country, according to the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. On Sunday, five more people died in another strike in Aleppo, two of them children, and warplanes returned again on Monday, doctors and residents said.

In Aleppo, the northern city that has emerged as the epicenter of the fighting, opposition media activist Mahmoud Raslan said government helicopters dropped crude barrel bombs on a contested neighborhood, while a doctor reported heavy shelling along the Castello road, a key route to besieged, opposition-held areas.