Major powers agree to plan for ‘cessation of hostilities’ in Syria

Major powers agreed on Friday (February 11) to a cessation of hostilities in Syria set to begin in a week and to provide rapid humanitarian access to besieged Syrian towns, but failed to secure a complete ceasefire or an end to Russian bombing.

Following marathon talks in Munich, the powers, including the United States, Russia and more than a dozen other nations, reaffirmed their commitment to a political transition when conditions on the ground improved.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the agreement at a press conference alongside his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov and U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura.

“I’m pleased to say that, as a result, today in Munich we believe that we have made progress on both the humanitarian front and the cessation of hostilities front. And these two fronts, this progress, has the potential, fully implemented, fully followed through on to be able to change the daily lives of the Syrian people,” said Kerry.

All parties would work to implement a nationwide ceasefire, said Kerry.

“Second, we have agreed to implement a nationwide cessation of hostilities to begin in a target of one week’s time. That’s ambitious but everybody is determined to move as rapidly as possible to try to achieve this. This will apply to any and all parties in Syria with the exception of the terrorist organizations DAESH and Al-Nusra,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.

Kerry also acknowledged the Munich meeting produced commitments on paper only.

“But our work today, while it has produced commitments on paper, I want to restate the real test is clearly whether or not all the parties honor those commitments and implement them in reality,” he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the news conference that Russia would not stop air attacks in Syria, saying the cessation of hostilities did not apply to Islamic State and al Nusrah, which is affiliated with al Qaeda.

Russia has been criticized for ramping up bombings in support of the Assad regime’s offensive on Aleppo, intensifying the humanitarian.

But Lavrov placed onus on the opposition to meet their obligations and allow humanitarian access in their areas.

“I hope that the opposition and those who control various groups of opposition will have no more reasons to somehow avoid meeting their obligations,” he said.

The first peace talks in two years between belligerents in Syria collapsed last week before they began in the face an offensive by Assad’s forces against opposition forces, one of the biggest and most consequential of the five-year war.

Both Kerry and Lavrov said on Thursday they had agreed that the talks should quickly resume in Geneva.

“It has also been underscored the task to resume the negotiation process that was suspended against the backdrop when a part of the opposition took an unconstructive stance and tried to put preconditions,” he said.

“Talks should resume as soon as possible in strict compliance with resolution 2254, that is without any ultimatums, without any preconditions. And talks should include a wide range of opposition forces,” Lavrov added.

Syria’s main opposition group welcomed the plan agreed in Munich.

It cautioned, however, that the agreement must prove to be effective before it joins political talks with government representatives in Geneva.