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 UP FRONTWednesday 24 February

Proposed truce accepted by Syrian government, opposition 

ALBERT AJI                      branch known as the Nusra       Syrian men pose for a picture as they gather in the Marjeh square in Damascus, Syria, Tues-
BASSEM MROUE                    Front, or any other militia     day, Feb. 23, 2016. The Syrian government and the main umbrella for Syrian opposition and rebel
Associated Press                designated as a terrorist or-   groups announced on Tuesday they both conditionally accept a proposed U.S.-Russian cease fire
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP)            ganization by the U.N. Se-      that the international community hopes will bring them back to the negotiating table in Geneva
— Syria’s government on         curity Council.                 for talks to end the war.
Tuesday accepted a pro-         But exactly where along
posed U.S.-Russian cease-       Syria’s complicated front                                                                                                             (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
fire that is to go into effect  lines the fighting would
later this week, but reserved   stop and where counter-
the right to respond to any     terrorism operations could
violations of the truce. The    continue under the truce
main opposition and rebel       is still to be addressed. The
umbrella group approved         five-page plan released by
the deal but set its own        the U.S. State Department
conditions.                     also leaves open how
The developments fol-           cease-fire breaches would
lowed an agreement be-          be dealt with.
tween Washington and            While accepting the pro-
Moscow for a new cease-         posed truce, the Syrian For-
fire set to take effect at      eign Ministry said its opera-
midnight Friday local time      tions will continue against
in the 5-year-old civil war,    IS, the Nusra Front and
even as major questions         “other terrorist groups.” It
over enforcement remain         also stressed the right of its
unresolved. The truce does      armed forces “to retaliate
not cover the Islamic State     against any violation car-
group, Syria’s al-Qaida         ried out by these groups.”

                                                                Cabinet minister Ali Haidar    fore the Senate Foreign Re-
                                                                said the government will re-   lations Committee.
                                                                spect the cease-fire in prin-  The Russian military said it
                                                                ciple, although he could       has set up a coordination
                                                                not “speak on behalf of the    center to help enforce the
                                                                armed groups.”                 cease-fire. The center is
                                                                “Violations will happen        located at Syria’s Hemei-
                                                                from other parties and         meem air base, which hosts
                                                                not from the Syrian state’s    Russian warplanes, said De-
                                                                side,” Haidar told The As-     fense Ministry spokesman
                                                                sociated Press after talks in  Maj.-Gen. Igor Konash-
                                                                Damascus with Peter Mau-       enkov, adding that it was
                                                                rer, the president of the In-  established in line with the
                                                                ternational Committee of       U.S.-Russian agreement.
                                                                the Red Cross. The main        Its purpose, Konashenkov
                                                                umbrella for Syrian opposi-    said, would be to help or-
                                                                tion and rebel groups, the     ganize cease-fire nego-
                                                                High Negotiations Commit-      tiations between the Syrian
                                                                tee, gave conditional ap-      government and the op-
                                                                proval late Monday. The        position. Russia has given
                                                                HNC said acceptance was        out its hotline numbers for
                                                                conditional on the govern-     enforcing the truce to the
                                                                ment ending its siege of 18    U.S., he added.
                                                                rebel-held areas, releas-      Some Syrians in the north-
                                                                ing detainees and halting      ern town of Qamishli ex-
                                                                aerial and artillery bom-      pressed skepticism that the
                                                                bardment. However, Talal       truce would hold.
                                                                Sillo, a spokesman for the     “If the international com-
                                                                predominantly Kurdish Syr-     munity had wanted to stop
                                                                ia Democratic Forces, told     the bloodshed, the killing
                                                                the AP that his group will     and shelling, this could
                                                                not abide by the truce be-     have happened three or
                                                                cause it’s fighting against    four years ago,” Bakr Safir
                                                                the Islamic State group in     told the newsgathering
                                                                northern Syria.                Arab agency Arab24.
                                                                U.S. Secretary of State John   U.N. envoy Staffan de Mis-
                                                                Kerry said won’t vouch for     tura halted the latest Syria
                                                                the success of the agree-      talks in Geneva on Feb. 3
                                                                ment but said it’s the best    because of major differ-
                                                                pathway for ending the         ences between the two
                                                                bloodshed.                     sides, exacerbated by in-
                                                                “I’m not going to say this     creased bombings and a
                                                                process is sure to work be-    large-scale government
                                                                cause I don’t know,” Kerry     offensive near the northern
                                                                testified in Washington be-    city of Aleppo.q
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