UN to announce date of new Syria talks: envoy

“There are two texts, the American and the Russian, and the task now is to converge them into one”, explained the source. He noted that the United States and Russian Federation had voiced willingness to share responsibility for the parties’ actions.

-Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations.

Sergey Lavrov voiced hope Thursday that the White House will respect the deal envisaging the cease-fire to take effect at midnight Friday local time.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister says he expects U.N.-sponsored peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition to resume in days.

Syria’s government considers all armed opposition groups as “terrorists”.

Russia’s official media Wednesday played up a report that the USA may have supplied Javelin anti-tank missiles to Syrian Kurds as the US and Moscow traded accusations ahead of a tentative truce in the civil war that is supposed to start Saturday.

“Earlier this morning, a WFP plane dropped the first cargo of 21 tonnes (21,000 kilograms) of items into Deir al-Zor”, Stephane O’Brien said in a Security Council briefing on the situation in Syria.

Kerry did say that any Plan B adopted “in the event we don’t succeed at the (negotiating) table”, would be more “confrontational”.

The statement from the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) came after the Syrian government also said it would observe the “cessation of hostilities” brokered by the U.S. and Russian Federation.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj.-Gen.

Wednesday’s airdrop was done at a high altitude for such an operation, as the WFP stressed in its comments to IRIN: “The aircraft crew is highly experienced and have done numerous airdrops before but this was their first high altitude airdrop in Syria (at a height of 7,000 metres) and this operation is not without risk”. Thus, the center’s staff members are working with representatives of the opposition groups in the Hama, Homs, Latakia provinces and the cities of Damascus and Daraa. The cease-fire will not cover the Islamic State group or the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.

A Foreign Ministry statement on Tuesday says government forces will have the right to respond to any violation carried out by insurgents.

The agreement, drawn up by the US and Russian Federation, is set to come into effect later this week.

Syria can be split into parts if the military conflict continues in this country, said Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. But he added that “this cease-fire agreement provides clear support to the Assad regime”.

The Aamaq news agency, which is affiliated with the extremist group, also reported that IS fighters are now in “full control” of Khanaser, southeast of the city of Aleppo.