GAZIANTEP, TURKEY —
The fragile three-day-old Syrian cease-fire negotiated by the U.S. and Russia appeared increasingly troubled Thursday with Moscow accusing Washington of failing to rein in rebel militias, and insurgent commanders saying there’s little point to the truce while Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, continues to block United Nations aid from reaching the besieged city of Aleppo.
In a statement issued Thursday, the Russian defense ministry claimed U.S. diplomats are hiding behind a “verbal curtain” to camouflage a reluctance to rein in rebel groups it backs.
The immediate source of the dispute is the refusal of rebel factions to withdraw 500 meters from a key route into insurgent-controlled parts of Aleppo, the Castello Road.
But rebel commanders told VOA they won’t do so until Syrian army and foreign Shi’ite militiamen drawn from Iran and other Mideast countries start pulling back too. Rebel anger is mounting about the cease-fire agreement — parts of which have not been published or divulged by Moscow and Washington.
This picture taken from the Turkish Syrian border city of Karkamis in the southern region of Gaziantep, on Aug. 24, 2016 shows Turkish army tanks and pro-Ankara Syrian opposition fighters moving two kilometres west from the Syrian Turkish border.
This picture taken from the Turkish Syrian border city of Karkamis in the southern region of Gaziantep, on Aug. 24, 2016 shows Turkish army tanks and pro-Ankara Syrian opposition fighters moving two kilometres west from the Syrian Turkish border.
“As far as I can see the agreement was written by the Russians,” says Zakaria Malahefji, the political officer of Fastaqim Kama Umirt, an Aleppo-based Free Syrian Army militia. He told VOA that the only reason FSA groups and other rebel militias have observed the cease-fire is “for aid to get to the people of Aleppo and help civilians who desperately need food and medicines.”
Cease-fire Meaningless Without Access to Aid
But without humanitarian assistance happening, there is little purpose, as far as the rebels are concerned, for the cease-fire. “All it is doing is to strengthen Assad,” he says.
The main U.S. motive for pushing for a cease-fire was a humanitarian one and to get aid into Aleppo and to other besieged areas of Syria. Aid agencies as well as the United Nations are ready to supply relief to an estimated six million people inside Syria, including 250,000 trapped in eastern Aleppo.
The cease-fire deal is meant to allow for “unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access” to besieged areas.
Speaking to U.S. public broadcaster National Public Radio Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said about the cease-fire deal: “What’s the alternative? The alternative is to allow us to go from 450,000 people who’ve been slaughtered to how many thousands more? That Aleppo gets completely overrun? That the Russians and Assad simply bomb indiscriminately for days to come, and we sit there and do nothing?”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, flanked by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, answers a reporter’s question on Sept. 9, 2016, at the Hotel President Wilson in Geneva, Switzerland, before they begin a bilateral meeting focused on Syria.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, flanked by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, answers a reporter’s question on Sept. 9, 2016, at the Hotel President Wilson in Geneva, Switzerland, before they begin a bilateral meeting focused on Syria.
But as of Thursday, U.N. aid trucks have not been given the go-ahead by the Assad regime to enter northern Syria from Turkey. More than 20 trucks laden with food and medicine have been on the border waiting for clearance from Damascus, which insists all aid must be approved first before crossing into Syria.
UN Envoy Blames Damascus for Delay
U.N. Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura, who says hundreds of trucks are ready to be loaded with aid, blamed Damascus for the delay — a hold-up that’s endangering the whole truce. He says the U.N. has not yet received facilitation letters from Damascus that would allow aid deliveries to begin.
He also says the dispute over the Castello Road is complicating the aid issue. Staffan de Mistura says the blocking of aid is a clear breach of the cease-fire agreement. But despite the problems, the envoy told reporters that the Russian-American agreement “is and remains a potential game-changer” and has produced a reduction of violence, adding that “by and large it is holding and is, in fact, substantial”.
Under the agreement struck between Washington and Moscow the warring sides are meant to step back from the Castello Road. Two checkpoints are then meant be established on the road overseen by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and with security provided by Russian soldiers.
Rebels say they are not comfortable with giving up territory they have fought so hard to keep and which has seen considerable loss of rebel lives. “There is fear because the regime exploits every opportunity,” says Malahefji.
Overall, the cease-fire has broadly held since coming into effect on Monday evening when the major three-day Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha, started. Both rebels and the regime have accused each other of violating the truce.
But monitoring groups have not reported civilian deaths since the cessation of hostilities went into effect — except in territory controlled by the jihadist Islamic State group, which is not covered by the cease-fire deal.
Syrian opposition activist collective Deir el-Zour 24 said an airstrike Thursday on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen killed at least four people and wounded dozens. It is unclear whether the strike was carried out by the Russians, the Syrian Air Force or the U.S.-led coalition.
