RUSSIA AND UNITED STATES MAKE NEW CEASEFIRE DEAL OVER SYRIA

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. (Reuters/Francois Lenoir) / Reuters

Following the yesterday semi-official announcement of a ceasefire agreement in the Syrian south at the end of talks between Russian President Putin and US President Trump, some additional details of the agreement appeared on Saturday. A US official said the agreement was the result of months of negotiations.

According to US officials, Russia, the United States and Jordan have set the ceasefire terms. Al-Qaeda, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), may not abide by the agreement or might even even act against it. From its side, Moscow confirmed that the government of President Bashar al-Assad will fully respect the agreement.

“Russian, American and Jordanian experts … agreed on a memorandum of understanding to create a de-escalation zone” in the regions of Deraa, Quneitra and Suweida, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.

From his side, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the agreement includes Suweida, Quneitra and Daraa. On the mechanism of implementation of the ceasefire Lavrov said: “At first, security around this de-escalation zone will be guaranteed by the forces and means of the Russian military police , In coordination with the Americans and Jordanians”.

However, US officials have said no ceasefire monitoring mechanism has been agreed upon so far.

The Arab and Israeli media reported that the agreement includes a buffer zone on the Golan front with a width of 30 km supervised by the Russian Military Police, with the withdrawal of some Syrian Arab Army (SAA) allies from the area such as Hezbollah and Iran. However, these claims have not been confirmed by any official sources so far.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said yesterday that the United States doesn’t see a future for President Assad and his family in Syria. It’s believed that the United States is again trying to exploit another agreement with Russia to achieve its agenda in Syria. Some experts believe that this could be seen as a bad sign, as this US behavior had foiled a previous deal in northern Syria by the end of 2016.

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