“We got a result today in Monaco, we think we made some progress. On both fronts: hostilities and aid. And these advances could change the daily life of Syrians.” So US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the International Syria Support Group has reached an agreement after a marathon that ended late at night.
"Humanitarian aid" for the Syrian cities under siege "should arrive immediately - he added -, starting this week", while the cessation of hostilities must take place within the next seven days. The delegations of 17 states, including Italy, took part in the negotiations. The Russians had been pushing for a truce since March XNUMX, while the EU wanted an immediate ceasefire.
The final document reads that the members of the International Support Group undertake to exert their influence for an immediate and significant reduction of the violence leading to the end of hostilities throughout Syria within a week. There is therefore no talk of a real ceasefire, nor of an end to Russian bombing. And in seven days Moscow will be able to complete its offensive on Aleppo.
Kerry stressed that "the longer the war lasts the more the extremists take advantage of it" and that everyone understood the great importance of this moment. The head of US diplomacy and the Russian foreign minister, Sergej Lavrov, announced that today at 16 pm the UN will convene in Geneva a task force made up of members of the International Support Group, which will be submitted to a UN humanitarian intervention plan the implementation of which will be monitored by the task force itself.
Lavrov explicitly said that Russia will not cease airstrikes because the end of hostilities does not apply to the Islamic State and Al Nusra, the group affiliated with Al Qaeda. Moscow therefore motivates the bombings with the need to stop the jihadists, while the US and Europe accuse the Kremlin of mainly hitting the opposition forces supported by the West who are trying to overthrow the regime of Bashar Al Assad.
The main group of the Syrian opposition, while expressing appreciation for the agreement reached, has announced that it will not participate in the negotiations in Geneva with the government in Damascus if the agreement is not fully implemented.
