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Syria ceasefire comes into effect as the U.N. votes unanimously to endorse deal Syrian opposition backs cease-fire even as battles rage in final hours
(about 4 hours later)
A ceasefire in Syria’s long civil war went into effect, at least on paper, at midnight in Damascus, with no initial signs of whether it would be observed by Russia, Syria or the scores of opposition groups fighting there. Guns fell silent for the first time in years in parts of civil-war-wracked Syria early Saturday morning, as a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia went into effect at midnight, Damascus time.
The deadline came as the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to approve the deal, negotiated Monday by the United States and Russia, and agreed by 15 other countries that have been supporting one side or the other in a brutal conflict that has left a quarter of a million people dead, sent millions fleeing the country over the past four years and empowered Islamic State militants. The deadline came as the United Nations Security Council, meeting in New York, voted unanimously to approve the agreement to end the brutal conflict that has left more than a quarter-million people dead, sent millions fleeing the country, and facilitated the spread of the Islamic State in Syria, Iraq and far beyond.
U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura told the Council that if the ceasefire “largely holds,” he would call on the Syrian government and the opposition to re-start peace talks on March 7. “Let us pray that this works,” U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura said in Geneva, after meeting with representatives of the countries sponsoring the accord. “Because, frankly, this is the best opportunity we can imagine that the Syrian people have had over the last five years . . . to see . . . something related to peace.”
“There will be no shortage of attempts to undermine” the truce, de Mistura said, amid reports earlier in the day that Russian bombing in Syria had escalated as the deadline approached. It remained unclear how the agreement would be monitored and violations adjudicated. Among the many difficulties will be monitoring what the deal’s sponsors and participants call a “cessation of hostilities.” The United States and Russia, as co-chairs of a task force that includes 15 other governments supporting either the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or the armed opposition fighting against it, are primarily responsible for verifying breaches and containing them from afar.
Syria’s main opposition group pledged Friday to abide by a cease-fire. The Saudi-backed umbrella group, known as the Higher Negotiations Committee, said in a statement that 97 opposition factions would observe the agreement. The two countries have established separate operations centers to investigate and adjudicate violations reports made to them by the parties on the ground or passed on by U.N. offices in Geneva and Damascus, the Syrian capital. These centers are in Washington and Amman, Jordan, for the United States; and Moscow and Latakia, Syria, for Russia. A hotline also has been established between the United States and Russia.
While warring groups clawed for final-hour gains before the deadline, the White House said they had little expectation the firing would stop immediately. The United Nations has its own contacts on the ground, and “Russians and Americans do have their own antennas, which have been raised,” de Mistura said without offering further explanation of how the monitoring will be conducted. “The system needs to be given a case to be tested.”
“It is unlikely that we’ll be able to judge the cessation of hostilities as a success or failure within the first couple of days or even within the first couple of weeks,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “because we do anticipate that we’re going to encounter some speed bumps along the way. There will be some potholes along the way. There will be violations along the way.” Any military response to a breach should be a “last resort,” he said, and “proportionate” to the initial offense. “We should not be surprised by breaches. What we need is to make sure it is contained.”
Success of the plan — hammered out during a diplomatic blitz led by the United States and Russia — hinges on keeping together a host of competing interests and rival allegiances that have shown little interest in finding common ground in the past. The United States and its allies in Europe and the region who are supporting various opposition groups will be responsible for reining in those groups’ combatants, presumably through diplomatic force or threats to withhold aid. Russia, which has been steadily bombing Assad’s opponents for months, is responsible for stopping its own attacks, those by Syrian government air and ground forces, and those by Iran-backed Shiite militias acting on Assad’s behalf.
The range of motives reflects the complications. After a day in which warring groups clawed for last-minute advantage ahead of the deadline, de Mistura said he received a report, at three minutes past midnight, that “suddenly both Daraya and Damascus” had “calmed down.” One report of fighting was being investigated and another was deemed “propaganda,” he said. Daraya, which has been bombarded by the Syrian air force, is a suburb southwest of Damascus.
For Russia — which began airstrikes in Syria last year — a critical objective is keeping intact the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which is also backed by Iran. The United States, which has sided with anti-Assad rebels, hopes to calm Syria’s civil war and concentrate the fight on the Islamic State. There were scattered but persistent reports of artillery bombardments and small-arms fire in several parts of the country, but it was difficult to know whether they represented a deliberate attempt to defy the agreement or the winding down of conflicts that have raged unchecked for years.
Aid groups want to reach places cut off by the battles. And neighboring Turkey is worried about the rising influence of Syrian Kurdish forces that it sees as a threat. A Damascus resident confirmed the silence in Daraya. In the town of Kafr Hamra, along the last rebel supply line into the northern city of Aleppo, activists said that three families were buried under the rubble of their homes by a Russian airstrike a few minutes before midnight. But there were no reports of further strikes after the deadline.
[Syria increasingly linked to region’s old Kurdish questions] Ahmad al-Masalmeh, an activist in the southern city of Daraa, said intense fighting across southern Syria stopped at midnight, the Associated Press reported.
In a sign that fighting would likely persist on some fronts, the leader of Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate, known as Jabhat al-Nusra, urged followers to reject the truce. In an audio statement, Abu Mohamad al-Golani, a nom de guerre, urged fighters to “intensify strikes” against government forces. De Mistura said that if the cease-fire holds and a separate agreement gains steam to deliver humanitarian aid to areas that have been cut off from food and medicine by the fighting, he would call on the Syrian government and the opposition to restart peace talks March 7.
Nusra and the Islamic State are classified as terrorist groups and have been excluded from the cease-fire agreement. “There will be no shortage of attempts to undermine” the truce, he said in a video briefing to the Security Council. De Mistura plans to meet with the task force Saturday to assess early results.
The truce has been pushed by the United States and Russia as a last-ditch measure to reduce hostilities that have produced a dangerously intensifying proxy war involving regional and world powers. In a statement Friday, the main Syrian opposition umbrella group, known as the High Negotiations Committee, said that 97 opposition factions would observe the agreement for two weeks to gauge its effectiveness. The Assad government also issued a statement of compliance.
The Syrian government is expected to declare official support for the plan Friday to the U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, who will then brief the United Nations Security Council. In addition to possible delays in communicating and adjudicating reports of violations — which are to be transmitted by combatants to the outside operations centers via email, text message or telephone — the agreement excludes the Islamic State and forces of Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate whose fighters are interwoven with opposition groups in the Syrian northwest around Aleppo. Bombing campaigns by the United States will continue against the Islamic State, while Russia will continue to strike the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra.
The 15-member body circulated a draft resolution on Thursday backing the plan, which it hopes to endorse Friday, Reuters reported. The draft, obtained by the news agency, demands, among other things, that “all parties to whom the cessation of hostilities applies . . . fulfill their commitments.” Washington and Moscow — which are barely speaking to each other outside of the Syria negotiations — exchanged maps on Friday delineating where they believe the excluded forces are located. In an audio statement, Jabhat al-Nusra leader Abu Mohamad al-Golani, a nom de guerre, urged fighters to “intensify strikes” against government forces.
Moreover, de Mistura has said he intends to resume peace negotiations. The talks collapsed earlier this month because pro-government forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, made startling advances against rebels in northern Syria near the strategic city of Aleppo. The People’s Protection Units, or YPG, a Syrian Kurdish group allied with the United States, is not part of the agreement. Turkey, which considers the YPG a terrorist organization, has been shelling it across the border in the confused northwestern Syrian battlefield and said it does not intend to stop.
[Turkey’s fears bring wild card to cease-fire efforts] Naylor reported from Beirut. Liz Sly contributed reporting from Gaziantep, Turkey.
Activists, meanwhile, said forces loyal to Assad continued to battle rebels in northwestern Latakia province, a strategic area where opposition forces are fed cross-border supplies from NATO-member Turkey, an opponent of the Syrian leader.
Ankara has expressed tentative support for the agreement, as have the Syrian Kurdish forces that Turkey has been targeting with cross-border attacks. Turkey, which says it still has the right to respond to threats inside Syria, opposes those forces because of their links with domestic Kurdish separatists.
Assad also favors the truce. In advance, however, Syrian warplanes have been pounding rebel-held areas near Damascus, the capital, including Daraya. Residents of that area have faced an escalation in air raids in recent days, according to activists from the area.
Daraya residents reject claims by the Assad government that Islamic State and al-Qaeda fighters operate in their area.
[Kerry’s desperate push over Syrian]
Also on Friday, multiple airstrikes hit the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area near the capital, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict.
In September, Russia intervened militarily in the conflict to prop up Assad, launching deadly air raids that Syrians say have killed militants but also scores of civilians and laid waste to hospitals and other noncombatant infrastructure.
The United States and Russia plan to co-chair a Cease-Fire Task Force on Friday, and attempt to demarcate territory held by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. The task force will also help with monitoring and enforcing compliance and establish a hotline for exchanging information about the cease-fire.
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