Syria truce hopes dim as military bears down on rebels

“If this agreement is to work, this bombing will have to stop: no cessation of hostilities will last if moderate opposition groups continue to be targeted”. But Kerry said Saturday that much work remained to be done before peace would become a reality. Meanwhile, Kerry found himself defending the United States against the charge that it has let Russian Federation dominate Syria’s skies and reinsert itself as the central outside force in the war. “I would be surprised if this agreement would be fully implemented”, Burns said, “and that’s a tragic situation for the people on the ground”.

Since Friday, the Russians stepped up their airstrikes against rebels that fight Assad’s army in Syria.

We heard Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russian Federation, say today that he thought maybe 49 percent. The government forces aim to advance in the direction of the ISIS capital in the coming days.

So-called local reconciliation agreements are often seen as a means for the government to force surrender on insurgents, and have typically followed lengthy blockades of rebel areas and the civilians living there.

Also on Saturday, reports emerged about Turkish attacks on Kurdish YPG positions in Syria. But said any move to deploy Saudi special forces into Syria would depend on a decision by the U.S.-led coalition combating the ultra-radical militants.

He was referring to the Turkish crackdown on the PKK in Iraq and its stronghold in the Qanndil mountains in the country.

“You can see all the pitfalls in this”, said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert and director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

Ankara considers the PYD and its YPG militia to be branches of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

Also on Saturday, Turkey announced it is coordinating with Saudi Arabia on a possible ground operation against “Islamic State” in Syria.

The United States, insulated from the conflict and refugee flows by an ocean and continent, doesn’t feel the same urgency about Syria that Europe does, the diplomat said, adding that many Europeans feel the United States hasn’t taken tough enough steps to end the violence there.

While humanitarian access is critical to relieving the suffering of millions of Syrians in the short term, a durable and lasting ceasefire will be required if stalled negotiations between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and the opposition are to resume on or before the UN-set target date of February 25.

“He spoke shortly after Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the world had “slid into a new period of Cold War”.

In a ‎keynote speech at the Munich Security Conference, NATO Secretary General focused on the security challenges stemming from the East. He made clear that the Alliance does not seek confrontation and does not want a new Cold War, but will respond firmly.

His comments can not be dismissed as mere rhetoric.

Tensions between the West and Russian Federation have increased in recent years, in large part – at least in the view of the West – due to Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and its support for separatists elsewhere in eastern Ukraine.

Assad, backed on the ground by Iranian combatants and Lebanon’s Hezbollah in addition to big power ally Russian Federation, is showing no appetite for a negotiated ceasefire. She’s written a book about U.S.-Russia relations called “The Limits Of Partnership”. “There is a growing sense that this United States administration is focused on establishing a legacy on what has already been achieved rather than trying to achieve anything more”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s senior foreign-policy lawmaker said Russian Federation has gained the upper hand in Syria’s civil war and expressed skepticism that a cease-fire will take hold.