A US-Russian brokered ceasefire for southwest Syria was holding hours after it took effect yesterday, a monitor and two rebel officials said, in the latest international attempt at peace-making in the six-year war.
The US, Russia and Jordan last week reached a ceasefire and “de-escalation agreement” with the aim of paving the way for a broader, more robust truce.
The announcement came after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Germany.
Photo: Reuters
It followed weeks of secretive talks in the Jordanian capital, Amman, to address the buildup of Iranian-backed forces in support of the Syrian government near the Jordanian and Israeli borders.
The three brokering nations did not specify mechanisms to monitor or enforce the truce.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said “calm was prevailing” with no air strikes or clashes in the southwest since the truce began at noon yesterday.
“The situation is relatively calm,” said Suhaib al-Ruhail, a spokesman for the Alwiyat al-Furqan rebel group in the Quneitra area.
Another rebel official, in the city of Deraa, said there had been no significant fighting.
It was quiet on the main Manshiya front near the border with Jordan, which he said had been the site of some of the heaviest army bombing in recent weeks.
There was no immediate comment from the Syrian army.
A witness in Deraa said he had not seen warplanes in the sky or heard any fighting since noon.
Several ceasefires have crumbled since the onset of the conflict and it was not initially clear how much the combatants — Syrian government forces and the main rebels in the southwest — were committed to this latest effort.
With the help of Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government has put rebels on the back foot over the last year.
The wide array of mostly Sunni rebels include jihadist factions and other groups supported by Turkey, the US and Gulf monarchies.
Earlier talks between the US and Russia about a “de-escalation zone” in southwest Syria covered Deraa Province on the border with Jordan, nearby Sweida and Quneitra which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday said that his nation would welcome a “genuine ceasefire” in southern Syria so long as it does not enable Iran and its proxies to develop a military presence along the border.
A senior US Department of State official involved in the talks said that further discussions would be necessary to decide crucial aspects of the agreement, including who would monitor its enforcement.
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said the deal includes “securing humanitarian access and setting up contacts between the opposition in the region and a monitoring center that is being established in Jordan’s capital.”
The UN Deputy Special Envoy for Syria on Saturday said the deal was a “positive development” ahead of the latest round of UN-sponsored peace talks to begin in Geneva on Monday.
Western-backed rebels control swathes of Deraa and Quneitra.
Additional reporting by AP
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