Different views toward the latest ceasefire deal in Syria

As the new round of Syria peace talks is still underway in Geneva, the agreement between the US and Russia to implement a ceasefire in southern parts of Syria has attracted a great deal of attention. While the agreement has survived its first day, there have been contradicting assessments about its various aspects.

کد خبر: ۷۱۱۵۱۶

تاریخ: ۲۰ تير ۱۳۹۶ - ۲۱:۲۳

Tabnak – As the new round of Syria peace talks is still underway in Geneva, the agreement between the US and Russia to implement a ceasefire in southern parts of Syria has attracted a great deal of attention. While the agreement has survived its first day, there have been contradicting assessments about its various aspects.

The New York Times writes in a report that as the representatives of Syria’s warring parties gathered in Geneva for the seventh round of peace talks, a limited truce, negotiated by their big-power backers, appeared to be holding for a full day in southwest Syria, according to local residents and human rights monitors.

The cease-fire, negotiated by the United States, Russia and Jordan, applies to a strategic area across southwest Syria, near its border with Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The paper believes that the choice of southwest Syria for a truce reflected the relative stability of the front lines in the area and the small number of extremist fighters among the rebels who could act as spoilers, according to an official involved in the negotiations.

However, Jared Malsin of the Time magazine criticizes the ceasefire deal, claiming that the deal effectively guarantees the Syrian government remains in place, in spite of Trump administration rhetoric to the contrary. Trump discussed the Syrian truce during his first face-to-face meeting as president with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany on Friday.

He quotes Fred Hof, a former US special envoy on Syria under Barack Obama administration as saying "My sense is that the Trump administration is resigned to the fact that the Assad regime has been secured by Iran and Russia for the indefinite future.”

Meanwhile, in its first official reaction to deal, Iran asked for the ceasefire to encompass the whole Syrian territory. "The agreement can be fruitful if it is expanded to all of Syria and includes all the area that we discussed in Astana talks for de-escalating the tension," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

"Iran is seeking Syria's sovereignty and security so a ceasefire cannot be limited to a certain location...No agreement would be successful without taking the realities on the ground into account," Qasemi added.

At the same time, the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura has stressed that the de-escalation process in Syria must not affect the country’s sovereignty. De Mistura made the comments during a press conferences held on the sidelines of the latest round of Syria peace talks held in Geneva on Monday.

He further added that negotiations were currently being held in Amman to monitor implementation of a ceasefire in southwest Syria brokered by US and Russia. "When two superpowers ... agree fundamentally at that level in trying to make that ceasefire work, there is a strong chance that that will take place," he said, adding that the truce was broadly holding.

This is while, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russia will continue cooperation with the US on de-escalation zones in southern Syria. He further added that although a ceasefire agreement came into force on Sunday, it needs to be consolidated.

All in all, it seems that the general viewpoint among various parties involved in the Syrian scene is a mixture of fear and hope, with each of the sides, eying its core interests in the country, tries to prevent the developments on the ground to go out of hand.