BEIRUT: An internationally brokered ceasefire in Syria was due to begin at sundown on Monday but, with only hours to go, the country’s opposition forces had yet to sign on.
The ceasefire deal, announced on Friday after marathon talks between Russia and the United States, has been billed as the best chance yet to halt the bloodshed in Syria’s five-year civil war.
As well as bringing a temporary halt to the fighting, it aims to provide crucial aid to thousands of desperate civilians, many of whom suffered an especially bloody weekend of air strikes ahead of Monday’s deadline.
Under the deal, an initial 48-hour ceasefire is to begin at 7:00 pm local time in Syria (1600 GMT), halting fighting in areas not held by jihadists like the Islamic State group.
Aid deliveries to the country’s many besieged and “hard-to-reach” areas are set to simultaneously begin, with government and rebel forces ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access in particular to the divided and devastated city of Aleppo.
If the ceasefire then holds for a week, Moscow and Washington are to begin unprecedented joint targeting of jihadist forces including IS and the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.
After years of stalled peace efforts and the failure of a landmark truce agreed in February, world powers are anxious to bring an end to a conflict that has left more than 290,000 dead and forced millions from their homes.
But Syria’s opposition is deeply sceptical that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime will abide by the agreement and on Monday demanded further guarantees before endorsing the deal.
– Opposition seeks ‘guarantees’ –
“We want to know what the guarantees are,” Salem al-Muslet, a spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition umbrella group, told AFP.
“We are asking for guarantees especially from the United States, which is a party to the agreement.”
He said key questions included how the deal would define “terrorist” groups that can continue to be targeted and what the response would be to violations of the truce.
“We fear that Russia will classify all the Free Syrian Army (rebel factions) as terrorists,” he said.
Washington has long supported moderate rebel groups fighting Assad, who in turn is backed by Russia and Iran.
Questions also remain about how the ceasefire will apply in several parts of the country where the Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, is present.
The group cooperates closely with many of Syria’s rebel forces, including moderate rebels and the powerful Ahrar al-Sham faction, which on Sunday issued a scathing condemnation of the Russian-US deal.
Ahrar al-Sham’s deputy leader Ali al-Omar said the agreement would “only serve to reinforce the regime and surround the revolution militarily.”
“The people cannot accept half-solutions,” he said in the message to mark the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha on Monday.
His remarks at first appeared a rejection of the deal but hours later Ahrar al-Sham’s spokesman Ahmed Qara Ali told AFP that the message was merely meant to note the deal’s “drawbacks”.
“The movement has not taken a position on the deal and will announce its position in a clear statement in consultation with other factions,” he said.
Ahrar al-Sham is Syria’s most powerful non-jihadist rebel group, with a commanding presence in Idlib and Aleppo provinces.
It espouses a hardline Islamist ideology, and is a key partner of the Fateh al-Sham Front, participating in the Army of Conquest alliance with the group in ruling Idlib province.
– ‘No hope anymore’ –
A crucial part of the truce agreement is a call for rebel forces to distance themselves from Fateh al-Sham, which will then be targeted in the joint operations by US and Russian forces.
Syria’s government and its allies including Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement have already backed the truce.
But the build-up to the truce deadline saw a significant rise in violence, with at least 74 people killed in air strikes on the key opposition-held cities of Aleppo and Idlib over the weekend.
In Aleppo city on Monday, an AFP correspondent said regime aircraft were carrying out further strikes and barrel bomb attacks on the rebel-held east.
Despite the beginning of Eid al-Adha, the city’s streets were quiet, with few able to celebrate amid shortages created by a renewed government siege.
Once the country’s economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by the conflict and roughly divided between rebel control in the east and government control in the west since mid-2012.
Government forces first encircled the east in mid-July. Rebels opened a new supply route in early August but regime troops sealed that route on September 8, besieging the east once again.
“We hope there will be a ceasefire so that civilians can get a break,” said Abu Abdullah, a resident of east Aleppo. “Civilians have no hope anymore.”
