Syria Truce Holding Despite Efforts at Sabotage

The U.S.-Russian truce in Syria seems to be holding on its third day, but efforts to blow it up are in high gear. According to a report in Reuters, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, Monday, that the cessation arrangement, by and large, was holding. But French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, speaking in Geneva, where the ceasefire task force of the International Syria Support Group was meeting, told reporters, “We have received indications that attacks, including by air, have been continuing against zones controlled by the moderate opposition.”

The Russian coordination center in Latakia reported nine violations, Sunday, in the previous 24 hours, including one incident in northern Latakia province in which militants of Jabhat al Nusra fired on an opposition group covered by the ceasefire.

The Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC), which has really been aiming at regime-change in Damascus, is threatening that if the Russians and the Syrian army don’t stop violating the truce, it will collapse. In a letter sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the opposition said violations would undermine international efforts to guarantee the continuation of the truce and lead to the collapse of the UN-adopted political process. The HNC claimed that Russian war planes on Sunday staged 26 bombing raids on areas where rebel groups abiding by the truce were operating; it accused Moscow of deploying cluster bombs on residential areas, and it alleged that these caused many civilian casualties. UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, said violations would be discussed, but a Western diplomat told Reuters that de Mistura has been pointing out that airstrikes are down from 100 a day to 6-8 a day, so there needed to be some perspective about the situation.

In any case, HNC spokesman Salem al-Muslat said that the Riyadh group would stick to the agreement, anyway. “The decision is to remain quiet, not to do anything, and I believe they will stick to the truce,” Muslat said. “Yesterday was the first day people can really go out and walk in the streets.”

The Russian Defense Ministry announced, yesterday, that the monitoring center at their airbase will be issuing daily reports with actual data on measures for the reconciliation of opposing sides. These will be sent to the American center in Amman, to the working group in Geneva, and be published on the Defense Ministry’s website. Lt. Gen. Sergei Kuralenko, the chief of the Russian center, reported yesterday, that nine violations of the ceasefire had come to their attention in the previous 24 hours. “In general, the ceasefire regime is being observed in Syria,” Kuralenko said.

U.S. Central Command apparently agrees. A spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad told Russian broadcaster Sputnik that “As seen in numerous reports it appears as though the cessation of hostilities is largely holding.”