After weeks of negotiations, the US and Russia finally reached an agreement on Syria ceasefire which could possibly bring the two countries together in the fight against Daesh(Islamic State, ISIS , ISIL , IS and).
The agreement was announced by the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva yesterday.
“Today, the United States and Russia are announcing a plan which we hope will reduce violence, ease suffering and resume movement towards a negotiated peace and a political transition in Syria,” Kerry said.
"Today we are announcing an arrangement that we think has the capability of sticking but it's dependent on people's choices," Kerry added.
He also said the US believed that Moscow had the capability to urge the Syrian government to “stop this conflict and to come to the table and make peace,” adding, "The plan is more prescriptive and far reaching than any proposal to date and if implemented by all sides could allow political negotiations to take place on Syria's future."
The US secretary of state also said if the upcoming truce lasted for a week, Washington would commence military cooperation with Russian forces to target the Takfiri terrorist groups of Daesh and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, Syrian branch al-Qaeda formerly known as al-Nusra Front.
Joint airstrikes in Syria
Lavrov, for his part, also said that the two countries had agreed to coordinate airstrikes against the terror groups in Syria “provided there is a sustained period of reduced violence.”
He added that after the seven-day truce, Moscow and Washington would establish a Joint Implementation Center, in which the military and the representatives of the two countries’ intelligence would "handle practical issues, separating terrorists and the opposition."
"We will jointly agree on strikes against terrorists to be carried out by the Russian and American air forces. We have agreed on the zones in which these strikes will be carried out," the Russian foreign minister stated.
“Despite the mistrust and attempt to disrupt what we have agreed upon, we managed to work out a package of documents; there are five of them. It allows us to set an effective coordination in the fight against terrorism, to expand the humanitarian access to distressed population, first and foremost in Aleppo,” Lavrov further said.
The senior Russian diplomat also noted that Moscow had informed the Syrian government about the arrangements and that it was ready to fulfill them.
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