Government Agrees to Cease-fire but Doubts Remain

The Syrian government agreed Tuesday to a partial cease-fire deal announced by the United States and Russia after it was conditionally accepted by the opposition, but serious doubts remain as to whether it could take effect by the weekend.

The limited truce announced on Monday excludes extremist organizations such as the so-called Islamic State group (ISIS) and the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front, creating serious obstacles for its implementation across Syria’s volatile and complex battlefield.

ISIS controls large swathes of territory in the northeast, while al-Nusra’s fighters fight alongside many rebel groups in the north.

The Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement that the government would continue fighting all “terrorists,” but agreed to stop other military operations “in accordance with the Russian–American announcement.”

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has objected to the word “cease-fire,” saying it was something that could be reached only by armies and states. “It does not happen between a state and terrorists,” he said last week according to Reuters. He instead offered a “halt to combat operations.”

All sides have expressed doubts regarding the success of the cease-fire, including the plan’s sponsors – the U.S. and Russia – which have attempted to play down expectations.

Saudi-backed rebels said Russia had increased its airstrikes on opposition groups since the plan was announced on Monday, Reuters reports.

Rebels have said the exclusion of ISIS and al-Nusra will give the government and its Russian backer a pretext to continue attacking them.

Syrian Kurdish groups have said they will continue to fight ISIS, al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham – a leading rebel group – without clarifying their stance on the cease-fire agreement.

Kerry Says He Won’t Guarantee Syria Cease-fire Success

U.S. secretary of state John Kerry stated Tuesday he won’t guarantee the success of the newly agreed cease-fire deal, but said that a truce negotiated with Russia was the surest way to end the five-year-long war.

“I’m not going to say this process is sure to work because I don’t know,” Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warning that the situation in Syria “could get a lot uglier” if the fighting is allowed to continue, the Associated Press reports.

“It may be too late to keep it as a whole Syria if we wait much longer,” he said.

The secretary of state said Washington is working on alternative plans if diplomacy fails. “There is a significant discussion taking place now about Plan B if we don’t succeed at the table,” he said.

“Assad himself is going to have to make some real decisions about the formation of a transitional governance process that’s real.”

Deep suspicion of Russia’s endgame in Syria was evident throughout the hearing, as both Republicans and Democrats expressed concern that Moscow would not abide by the cease-fire and would instead choose to press on with its air campaign, which has propped up the Assad government and changed the entire momentum of the civil war.

Kurds Coordinating with Syrian Government and Russia: U.K.

Britain has seen “disturbing evidence” that Kurdish militias are coordinating with the Syrian government and Russian air force, U.K. foreign secretary Philip Hammond said Tuesday.

The main Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), has taken advantage of the massive Russian-backed government offensive in northern Syria to expand its territorial holdings, seizing territory from U.S.-backed rebels.

The latest actions by the YPG, the U.S.-led coalition’s strongest ground partner in the war against ISIS, has effectively left the U.S. in a proxy war against itself, the Telegraph reports.

“What we have seen over the last weeks is very disturbing evidence of coordination between Syrian Kurdish forces, the Syrian regime and the Russian air force which are making us distinctly uneasy about the Kurds’ role in all of this,” Hammond told the British Parliament on Tuesday.

Recommended Reads

• IPI: The Thugs of War in Syria
• BBC: Syria: Has President Assad Won the War?
• Foreign Policy: Big-Power Meddling Casts Shadow Over Cease-Fire in Syria
• Politico: American View: Why the Arabs Don’t Want Us in Syria
• Politico: Why Moscow Holds the Cards in Syria
• CNN: Will Saudi Arabia Be Sucked into Syria?
• Vanity Fair: War Porn and Barrel Bombs: Inside Assad’s Propaganda Offensive
• Al-Monitor: Can Ankara’s Plans Keep Up with Syria’s Escalation?
• U.S. State Department: Cessation of Hostilities Agreement
• The New York Times: How Turkey Misreads the Kurds

Top image: Syrians walk past a shop bearing a painting of the national flag in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)