Russia says 48-hour truce reached in Syria’s Aleppo

A 48-hour “silence regime” was enforced on Thursday in the war-ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo, officials announced on Thursday. “We have given no promises to anyone, but agreed that everyone working on the Syrian settlement will be guided by agreements reached by the International Syria Support Group, which have been written down in UN Security Council Resolutions”, Lavrov said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

“It is very clear that the cessation of hostilities is frayed and at risk and that it is critical for a genuine cessation to be put in place”, Kerry said Wednesday in Oslo, Norway.

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The ministry did not say if any other parties to the conflict had been consulted.

About 637 civilians, including 124 children, have been killed in retaliatory attacks by the regime and rebels in Aleppo since April 22, when violence in the city escalated, according to the observatory.

Moscow’s announcement came after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russian Federation and the Syrian regime on June 15 that U.S. patience was wearing thin and they must respect a cease-fire instituted in February.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.

The surge in fighting in Aleppo had shattered an earlier US-Russian-brokered ceasefire that took effect in most parts of Syria in late February.

The humanitarian organisation Mercy Corps meanwhile warned that aid had been cut from rebel-held areas of Aleppo, where between 200,000 and 300,000 people are still thought to live, for the longest period since fighting erupted in the city in 2012, driving up food prices.