Munich: The World powers have agreed to a “ cessation of hostilities ” in Syria’ s civil war, to begin in the next week, and immediate humanitarian access to besieged areas, after talks in Germany.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke in Munich, where top diplomats from the United States, Russia and more than a dozen other nations, met to hammer out a deal. John Kerry acknowledged the meeting produced commitments on paper only.
Kerry said, “I’m pleased to say that as a result today in Munich, we believe we have made progress on both the humanitarian front and the cessation of hostilities front, and these two fronts, this progress, has the potential fully implemented, fully followed through on to be able to change the daily lives of the Syrian people.”
He said.”First, we have agreed to accelerate and expand the delivery of humanitarian aid beginning immediately,” and second “we have agreed to implement a nationwide cessation of hostilities to begin in a target of one week’s time. That’s ambitious, but everybody is determined to move as rapidly as possible to try to achieve this.”
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the fight could only be end if Russia stop air strikes supporting Syrian government forces’ advance against the opposition. He said. “If implemented fully and properly this (deal) will be an important step towards relieving the killing and
suffering in Syria.”
“A Western diplomatic source said: “We did not get a deal on the immediate end of Russian bombings, but we have a commitment to a process that if it works would change the situation.”
The move has been taken when the Syrian army, backed by Russian air strikes, advances in Aleppo province.
The move threatens to encircle tens of thousands of civilians in rebel-held parts of the major city of Aleppo.