Russia, US agree to air safety measures for Syria

On May 4, Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to set up four de-escalation zones in Syria.

The Russian diplomat, Aleksandr Lavrentiev, suggested that Russian and Turkish warplanes also would be prohibited from flying in the four designated de-escalation zones, where Syrian government and rebel forces are supposed to stop fighting one another.

Observation posts and checkpoints would be created in the de-escalation zones. Another is the northern part of Homs province. It could be automatically extended on the basis of a consensus between the agreeing parties.

The rebel delegation suspended its participation Wednesday over ongoing airstrikes, but members returned to the table for the final day of talks. It is home to about 690,000 civilians. The Kremlin condemned the attack as an act of aggression against a sovereign state before suspending the airspace agreement.

Russian Federation and Iran – two of the plan’s three sponsors – are key allies of President Bashar Assad’s government and both are viewed as foreign occupation forces by his opponents.

Russian Federation will continue to fly over the areas but will refrain from conducting air raids.

The Syrian regime’s air force would essentially be grounded as most of its bombing has been concentrated on rebel-held areas.

The UN is hoping that success on the ground could pave the way to a new round of political talks in Geneva later this month.

The Britain-based group said that this is the first ceasefire in 2017, but the fourth ceasefire since 2016 in Syria.

But neither the government nor the rebels were direct signatories to the deal, and the opposition’s reaction was lukewarm.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow and other countries-guarantors of memorandum have provided the United States with all the information on the document. He did not elaborate.

It has not been accepted by all opposition groups, and the Syrian government reserved the right to continue fighting what it called terrorist organisations across the country.

“The only place where the coalition’s aviation can operate is certainly on targets of the Islamic State”. Adrian J.T. Rankine-Galloway.

Yet, the de-escalation zones agreement was not signed by the Syrian government, nor the opposition.

While the deal and precise boundaries of the zones are still being developed, it could also be the first to involve monitoring by foreign troops in Syria, which has been embroiled in a bitter civil war for six years.

Back when Turkey and the U.S. were both super keen on the idea of safe zones, a big selling point was the imposition of no-fly zones over the areas, to keep the civilians within getting bombed.

Fighting has eased in parts of Syria where a Russian-led initiative to halt the country’s six-year war took effect from midnight, activists say.

According to media reports, the plan allows for Russia, Turkey and Iran to continue fighting ISIL, as well as al-Qaeda-affiliated groups inside the safe zones. Iran, Assad’s other major ally, also backed it.

The Iranian role as “observers”, formalizing the Iranian troop presence, seems particularly combustible. Opposition delegates also said they would not recognise Iran as a guarantor of any ceasefire plan.