Russia casts doubt on U.S commitment to Syria Cease-fire deal

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country is upholding its commitments to the Syrian cease-fire agreement, but cast doubt over the United States’ commitment to the deal, saying Washington was deviating from its own call for openness.

“I don’t really understand why we have to keep such an agreement closed,” Putin said in a televised appearance on a trip to Kyrgyzstan, adding that Moscow would not unilaterally release the terms of the deal.

He suggested Washington may be trying to maintain the combat potential of rebels fighting the Syrian government, adding the U.S. government could not separate the so-called healthy part of the opposition from what he called “the half-criminal and terrorist elements.”

“This is a very dangerous route,” he said.

Week-old pact already strained

Under a cease-fire agreement announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva a week ago, hostilities should have paused Monday (the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha) to clear the way for humanitarian aid to flow unhindered into Syria. Starting next Monday – if those conditions are met – joint coordination between the United States and Russia on airstrikes is to commence against the Islamic State and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as al-Nusra), which are not parties to the truce.
Officials in Washington and Moscow on Friday expressed a desire to extend the cease-fire pact and confirmed aid deliveries had not yet begun, but agreed on little else concerning the tenuous situation in the war-torn country.

The White House indicated Friday that the next phase of the deal would not move forward until the aid was moving freely.

In a statement, the White House said President Barack Obama emphasized to his National Security Council that “the United States will not proceed with the next steps in the arrangement with Russia until we see seven continuous days of reduced violence and sustained humanitarian access.”

Aid delayed due to clashes

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Saturday intermittent shelling and clashes resumed overnight on several fronts in Syria. In particular, fighting erupted between rebels and pro-government forces in the opposition-held suburb of Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, and airstrikes hit several towns in the central province of Homs.

Forty trucks carrying desperately-needed relief for the divided city of Aleppo waited Friday at a checkpoint at the Turkish border, and the U.S. blamed the Syrian government for the holdup.

“Those trucks should be going in and that aid should be getting delivered with or without the arrangement that was arrived at in Geneva,” State Department Spokesman John Kirby said. “It is the (Syrian) regime that is blocking the movement.”

U.N. officials say conditions are not yet safe for the vehicles to cross into Syria.

“We know that there’s at least a quarter of a million people in eastern Aleppo who are potentially all of them in need of some kind of aid,” said Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian office. “We are as ready to go as we can possibly be.… it’s highly frustrating – we know the whole world is watching.”
Syrian government troops had withdrawn from Aleppo but were then fired upon by rebels, prompting the soldiers to return to their previous positions, according to Russian officials, who also blamed Washington for not using its influence to quell cease-fire violations by rebel groups.

U.S. officials have a different view, with Kerry expressing concern in a Friday phone call to Lavrov “about the repeated and unacceptable delays of humanitarian aid” according to a State Department statement.

Pessimism over deal

It is hoped that the truce forged between the United States and Russia will clear the way for negotiations about a political transition in Syria.

But rebel leaders say they expect the cease-fire to collapse and do not believe Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – or his foreign backers, Russia and Iran – have any desire to negotiate a political settlement.

“The armed groups on the ground are still discussing what they should do about the cease-fire,” General Salim Idris, former chief of the staff of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, told VOA.