Syria ceasefire void if violations persist

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani agreed in a telephone call on Saturday to work together to try to end the Syria crisis and make a success of peace talks planned for the Kazakh capital Astana, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Both countries stressed that agreement is not meant to be a substitute for the United Nations push for peace talks in February in Geneva.

The United Nations Security Council on Saturday unanimously adopted a resolution supporting a ceasefire in the almost six-year Syrian civil war, the details of which were organized by the governments of Russian Federation and Turkey, France 24 reported.

The UN Security Council has unanimously passed a resolution drafted by Russian Federation that endorses a nationwide Syrian ceasefire, which was earlier brokered by Moscow and Ankara.

“Everything is open for discussion, with the exception of national sovereignty, and the people’s right to choose its leadership”, he said in a live interview on state television.

The area is controlled by the Fatah al-Sham Front, formerly known as the Nusra Front.

Two rebel officials later said that the ceasefire was kept after air raids around Wadi Barada stopped just before 8 pm.

The new deal for cessation of hostilities applies throughout Syria but it excludes Islamic State (Isis) militants, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and the Kurdish YPG militia.

The Observatory reported at least 16 government air strikes across several areas in Hama province in central Syria, but no casualties.

Moscow says it wants the United Nations involved in the peace talks between Damascus and rebels it has scheduled to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan in January, although the United Nations is negotiating its own separate peace efforts slated for February.

But he insisted the Astana talks, overseen by Turkey and Russian Federation, were not a rival to UN-backed talks that have been taking place on-and-off in Geneva in recent years.

Each side blames the other for continued unrest. Throughout the war, rebel forces have failed to form a united leadership, and infighting among groups has been common.

The Observatory says a total of 60,000 people lost their lives in violence across Syria in 2016, more than 13,000 of them civilians.

A news website close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said that Gen. Gholam Ali Gholizadeh, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, was killed fighting in Syria.

Turkey’s Syrian operations are also created to prevent the Kurdish YPG militia, which it regards a terrorist group, from joining up cantons it controls along the Turkish border, fearing that would embolden Kurdish separatism at home.

This isn’t the first attempt to suspend fighting in the region, but if this agreement holds, it is supposed to be the first step in a peace process that would end the civil war in Syria.

Syria suggested that its taking of Eastern Aleppo, which is part of Syria’s second largest city and had been a stronghold for opposition fighters, earlier this month had paved the way for the deal.