GENEVA (AP) — The United States and Russia early Saturday
announced a breakthrough agreement on Syria that foresees a
nationwide cease-fire starting next Monday, followed a week later
by an unlikely new military partnership between the rival
governments targeting the Islamic State and al-Qaida.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said shortly after midnight
that the plan could reduce violence in Syria and lead to a
long-sought political transition, ending more than five years of
bloodshed. He called the deal a potential “turning point” in a conflict that
has killed as many as 500,000 people, if complied with by Syria’s
Russian-backed government and U.S.-supported rebel groups.

The cease-fire begins at sundown Sept. 12, Kerry said, coinciding
with the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday. Kerry’s negotiating partner, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov, confirmed the agreement and said it could help expand the
counterterrorism fight and aid deliveries to Syrian civilians. He
said Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government was prepared to
comply.

“This is just the beginning of our new relations,” Lavrov said.

The deal culminates months of frenetic diplomacy that included
four meetings between Kerry and Lavrov since Aug. 26, and a
lengthy face-to-face in China between Presidents Barack Obama and
Vladimir Putin. The arrangement hinges on Moscow pressuring
Assad’s government to halt all offensive operations against
Syria’s armed opposition and civilian areas. Washington must
persuade “moderate” rebels to break ranks with the Nusra Front,
al-Qaida’s Syria affiliate, and other extremist groups.

Both sides have failed to deliver their ends of the bargain over
several previous truces.

But the new arrangement goes further by promising a new
U.S.-Russian counterterrorism alliance, only a year after Obama
chastised Putin for a military intervention that U.S. officials
said was mainly designed to keep Assad in power and target more
moderate anti-Assad forces.

Forces
loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad flash victory signs as
they stand at a military complex, after they recaptured areas in
southwestern Aleppo on Sunday that rebels had seized last
month
Thomson
Reuters

Russia, in response, has chafed at America’s financial and
military assistance to groups that have intermingled with the
Nusra Front on the battlefield. Kerry said it would be “wise” for
opposition forces to separate completely from Nusra, a statement
Lavrov hailed.

“Going after Nusra is not a concession to anybody,” Kerry said.
“It is profoundly in the interests of the United States.”

The military deal would go into effect after both sides abide by
the truce for a week and allow unimpeded humanitarian deliveries.
Then, the U.S. and Russia would begin intelligence sharing and
targeting coordination, while Assad’s forces would no longer be
permitted to target Nusra any longer; they would be restricted to
operations against the Islamic State.

The proposed level of U.S.-Russian interaction has upset several
leading national security officials in Washington, including
Defense Secretary Ash Carter and National Intelligence Director
James Clapper, and Kerry only appeared at the news conference
after several hours of internal U.S. discussions.

At one point, Lavrov said he was considering “calling it a day”
on talks, expressing frustration with what he described as an
hours-long wait for a U.S. response. He then presented
journalists with several boxes of pizza, saying, “This is from
the U.S. delegation,” and two bottles of vodka, adding, “This is
from the Russian delegation.”

A
general view shows the damage at a military complex, after forces
loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad recaptured areas in
southwestern Aleppo on Sunday that rebels had seized last
month
Thomson
Reuters

The Geneva negotiating session, which last more than 13 hours,
underscored the complexity of a conflict that includes myriad
militant groups, shifting alliances and the rival interests of
the U.S. and Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Turkey and the
Kurds.

Getting Assad’s government and rebel groups to comply with the
deal may now be more difficult as fighting rages around the
divided city of Aleppo, Syria’s most populous and the new focus
of a war that has killed as many as 500,000 people.

Assad’s government appeared to tighten its siege of the former
Syrian commercial hub in the last several days, seizing several
key transit points. Forty days of fighting in Aleppo has killed
nearly 700 civilians, including 160 children, according to a
Syrian human rights group. Volunteer first responders said they
pulled the bodies of nine people, including four children, from
rubble following air raids Friday on a rebel-held area.

Kerry outlined several steps the government and rebels would have
to take. They must now pull back from demilitarized zones, and
allow civilian traffic and humanitarian deliveries.

But as with previous blueprints for peace, Saturday’s plan
appears to lack enforcement mechanisms. Russia could, in theory,
threaten to act against rebel groups that break the deal. But if
Assad bombs his opponents, the U.S. is unlikely to take any
action against him given Obama’s longstanding opposition to
entering the civil war.

In addition to those killed, Syria’s conflict has chased millions
of people from their homes, contributing to Europe’s worst
refugee crisis since World War II. Amid the chaos of fighting
between Syria’s government and rebels, the Islamic State group
has emerged as a global terror threat.

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