Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday the United States was not fulfilling its obligations under the Syrian ceasefire agreement, as Moscow and Washington pointed fingers at each other for violating what had appeared to be a peaceful lull in fighting.
In a statement, the Russian ministry said that US-led “moderate opposition forces” had increased the “number of attacks on residential neighborhoods,” claiming that at the end of the third day of the current cessation “only the Syrian army observes silence mode.”
The current ceasefire was called so that desperately needed humanitarian aid could be delivered.
“From the first minute Russia’s been meeting its obligations to enforce the cessation of hostilities in Syria,” the defense ministry said in the statement.
“At the same time we’re puzzled by the statements made by various representatives of the US State Department and the Pentagon about the prospects of Russia fulfilling the agreements reached on Syria.”
“Moreover, it seems that the goal of Washington’s ‘verbal veil’ is the intention to hide non-compliance with its part of the obligations. First of all, on the separation of forces of ‘moderate opposition’ and terrorists.”
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner Toner acknowledged Wednesday that the situation hadn’t been perfect.
“We’ve seen violations by both sides,” he said, adding, “we’re continuing to monitor this very closely.”
Calm in Aleppo
CNN Senior International Correspondent Frederik Pleitgen reached the government-controlled part of Aleppo on Thursday and said the area was as calm as he’d ever seen it. He visited an area that was the scene of intense shelling just before the ceasefire went into effect, where buildings had been reduced to rubble.
He spoke to residents there, who said they were happy for the reprieve from the fighting but were not necessarily optimistic the ceasefire would hold.
“This ceasefire was brought about by outside powers — it was brought about by the United States and Russia, and then basically the warring parties here were told that they are to abide by the ceasefire, so its very, very fragile,” Pleitgen said.
250 ISIS fighters killed
The tenuous calm appeared to be largely holding, after an agreement by both parties to extend the deal for another 48 hours.
But there have been a handful of violations on both sides, Toner acknowledged.
“Incidents are still far below those observed before September 12. We continue to receive reports of incidents — on the part of both the opposition and the Assad regime — and encourage all parties to honor their commitment to bring fighting to an end. We also call on all parties with influence over the Syrian regime to ensure all measures are taken to immediately facilitate access for UN humanitarian convoys,” he said.
The ceasefire deal calls for a halt to the violence between the Syrian regime and rebel forces, but it does not cover militant groups considered terrorists, such as ISIS and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al Nusra Front.
Russia’s warplanes attacked a group of ISIS militants north of Palmyra, killing 250 terrorists, Viktor Poznikhir, the first deputy chief of the General Staff’s main operations directorate, told the media Wednesday.
“The Russians are authorized to be striking those targets,” says Lt. Col. Rick Francona, a CNN military analyst. “That area is an ISIS stronghold and they’re going to have to clear that area out before anybody makes any move on Raqqa, especially from the south.”
It’s not clear if those strikes were carried out unilaterally or in coordination with the US.
Aid still on hold
But convoys still haven’t been able to get humanitarian aid to those in need — a driving factor for establishing the ceasefire in the first place. Aid delivery is also an important way to judge if a ceasefire is successful.
At a news conference in Geneva Thursday, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura and his special adviser, Jan Egeland, said they believed they could obtain permits to deliver the aid.
“We can get the permits today and they can come tomorrow morning, and it’s only the time it takes to load the trucks,” Egeland told reporters.
He said that 20 trucks had already passed the buffer zone between Turkey and Syria, and that drivers had been waiting in the zone for 48 hours.
“Because these are cross-line convoys, these are cross-frontline convoys, checkpoints,” Egeland said, adding that “armed men will block the drivers from reaching women and children” in need if the proper permits were not presented.
De Mistura said a contested highway into eastern Aleppo, Castello Road, had “special status” under the ceasefire agreement, meaning its use would need to be negotiated separately for the delivery of aid. The highway, nicknamed “Death Road,” cuts through Aleppo and is considered the only route into the rebel-held east of the city, an area that has been in desperate need of aid since regime forces virtually cut it off in July.
If truce holds…
Under the terms of the deal, if the peace holds for seven days, Russia and the United States will establish a Joint Implementation Center, or JIC, for cooperation on military operations in Syria targeting terror groups.
Once the JIC is established, the Syrian government will be barred from conducting air operations in areas where the JIC is active.
But if cooperation falls apart after the JIC is implemented, that could pose a whole new set of problems for the US, according to Francona.
“We’re going to be revealing sources and methods — there’s no way to get around that,” Francona said.
“They’ll be able to see where we believe — and where we will know — that those opposition groups that are allied with the United States are, because we’re going to put them on a ‘do not bomb’ list. But I guarantee you … that list is going to Damascus very, very quickly. And if this agreement fails, the Syrian Air Force will know where to go to kill all of those rebels that we’ve been supporting.”
Syria’s Foreign Ministry has said aid can only be delivered to Aleppo if it is coordinated through the government and United Nations — especially aid coming from Turkey.
Nevertheless, the ceasefire appears to have offered a respite in violence in the five-year civil war that’s killed 430,000 people, according to one estimate, and touched off an international refugee crisis.
The situation remained mostly quiet in Aleppo, excluding a few incidents near the city, according to an Aleppo Media Center activist.
