Obama: No sign ceasefire will bring lasting peace in Syria

“The UN will apparently promote a ceasefire and implementation, and will negotiate with the parties”, a diplomat close to the process told Reuters.

But State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Tuesday only stressed the need to “see some progress on a cessation of hostilities in the coming days”.

Russia’s Maria Zakharova rejected accusations by Turkey, the Unites States and their allies that Russian Federation had attacked hospitals and other civilian targets in Syria.

Russian warplanes entered Syria’s increasingly complex, five-year-old conflict at the end of September, backing the forces of their ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and bombing rebel positions. “But the talks… can be successful if emergency aid continues and we get a ceasefire”, de Mistura told the Svenska Dagbladet.

Russian Federation needs to show its global partners it is serious about implementing the agreement to halt the fighting in Syria, but it won’t stop its air campaign until Aleppo is captured, said Alexei Malashenko, a Middle East expert at the Moscow Carnegie Center.

Little headway appears to have been made on securing humanitarian access to besieged areas throughout the country. Republican U.S. Senator John McCain criticized the Obama administration for bowing to Russian pressure, warning against “legitimizing their actions in Syria”, which he characterized as “a disaster in the making”. Toner said a U.S.-Russian-led task force that is supposed to map out the details of the truce still hasn’t even met. He expressed hope of an initial gathering Wednesday.