US And Russia Finally Agree New Cease-Fire Deal In Syria

The US and Russia have finally agreed to a cease-fire deal in Syria after months of negotiations.

US Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed early Saturday during a press conference in Geneva that a cease-fire would begin at sundown on Sept. 12, coinciding with the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

“Today the United States and Russia are announcing a plan which we hope will reduce violence, ease suffering and resume movement toward a negotiated peace and a political transition in Syria. We are announcing an arrangement that we think has the capability of sticking, but it is dependent on people’s choices.”

“It has the ability to stick, provided the regime and the opposition both meet their obligations, which we — and we expect other supporting countries — will strongly encourage them to do.”

Alongside Kerry at the press conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the agreement would help expand the counterterrorism fight and aid deliveries to Syrian civilians by the UN which have stalled in recently weeks.

He said Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government was informed of the accord, and prepared to comply.

“The United States is going the extra mile here because we believe that Russia, and my colleague, have the capability to press the Assad regime to stop this conflict and to come to the table and make peace,” Kerry said.

“This is just the beginning of our new relations,” Lavrov said.

Apart from the cease-fire the arrangement also requires Moscow to pressure Assad’s government to halt all offensive operations against Syria’s armed opposition in certain areas, which were not detailed. While Washington must persuade US-backed rebels to stop working with with Fath al-Sham, an al-Qaeda-linked group previously known as the al-Nusra Front, and other extremist groups.

The full military deal will go into effect if both sides abide by the truce for a week and allow unimpeded humanitarian deliveries. The US and Russia will then begin intelligence sharing and targeting coordination, while Assad’s air and ground forces will be restricted to running operations against ISIS only.

Getting Assad’s government and rebel groups to comply is expected to be difficult as fighting rages around Aleppo, Syria’s most populous city.

Assad’s government appeared to tighten its siege of Aleppo in the past week, seizing several key transit points. Forty days of fighting in the city have killed nearly 700 civilians, including 160 children, the Associated Press reported.