Syria ‘ceasefire’ plan faces obstacles
February 12, 2016, 8:11 am

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, left, attend a session of the ISSG Friday [Xinhua]

Standing together following intense, often difficult talks in Munich, the two senior diplomats said that all sides are to move to scale back their military campaigns over the course of the next week.

They used the term “cessation of hostilities” to describe the deal and said it would be based on incremental steps toward a full ceasefire.

Humanitarian aid deliveries will be the focus of the deal; these are expected to be resumed and intensified immediately.

“We believe we have made progress on the humanitarian front and the cessation of hostilities,” Kerry told journalists.

According to a statement about the Munich deal reached by the 17-member International Syria Support Group (ISSG), the warring parties in Syria must guarantee “full, sustained, and unimpeded access” to besieged peoples, many of whom have been slowly starving.

But Kerry cautioned that the deal was currently just on paper and faced tests in the next week.

“What we need to see in the next few days are actions on the ground, in the field,” he said.

“Without a political transition, it is not possible to achieve peace,” he added.

While all parties have agreed to the cessation of hostilities, there are fears that some opposition groups may not abide by its tenets.

Not all opposition groups have participated in the recently collapsed Geneva peace talks.

There are also questions whether Russia and its ally Syrian President Bashar Al Assad will scale down their offensive to retake Aleppo from Islamist opposition groups.

In recent days, the Syrian National Army backed by the Russian air force has made gains in the push toward Aleppo.

Lavrov said Russia would work with the government and opposition groups to ensure that the gradual scaling back of violence leads to a comprehensive ceasefire.

He called on the US and its allies to pressure opposition groups to “cooperate fully” with the UN-sponsored deal.

He said the goal would be to have all previously participating parties return to the Geneva talks which faltered last week.

“The goal of resuming the negotiation process, which was suspended in an atmosphere where part of the opposition took a completely unconstructive [sic] position and tried to put forward preconditions, was stressed,” he said of the ISSG talks early Friday.

But the Russian bombardment of the Islamic State and the Al Nusra extremist group will continue, Lavrov said.

Iran, Russia and Syria say other “terrorist” groups – backed by Saudi Arabia and Turkey – should also be exempt from the cessation of hostilities and therefore legitimate targets.

This could prove to be a sticking point as it appears to have remained unresolved ahead of the deal announcement Friday.

The announcement of a deal comes following a harrowing report from the Syrian Centre for Policy Research (SCPR) which shows the devastation of five years of civil war.

It says 470,000 people have been killed and a further 1.9 million wounded in the war – accounting for 11.5 per cent of the population.

In financial terms, SCPR estimates that material losses could reach $255 billion.

The ceasefire deal also comes amid threats made by Saudi Arabia and the UAE to send as many as 100,000 troops to Syria.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned that Saudi involvement could lead to perpetual “war on Earth”.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies