World powers to cease Syria hostilities

Munich, February 12 

After an ambitious deal to end hostilities in Syria within a week was signed early today, doubts emerged over its viability as it excludes the Islamic State group and al-Qaida’s local branch.

US Secretary of State John Kerry admitted there were “no illusions” about the difficulty of implementing a nationwide “cessation of hostilities” between regime forces and rebels as he announced the deal in Munich alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The 17-nation International Syria Support Group also agreed that "sustained delivery" of humanitarian aid will begin "immediately", with a new UN task force meeting later in Geneva to start pushing for much greater access to "besieged and hard-to-reach areas".

The deal, struck in late night talks in Munich, went further than expected, with Lavrov talking about "direct contacts between the Russian and US military" on the ground, where the powers are backing opposing sides in the five-year- old conflict.

Lavrov underlined that "terrorist organizations" such as IS and Al-Nusra "do not fall under the truce, and we and the US-led coalition will keep fighting these structures".

But after a fortnight in which the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have besieged the key rebel city of Aleppo with the help of heavy Russian bombing, several nations put the onus on Moscow to implement the Syria deal.

"Through its military action on the side of Assad's regime, Russia had recently seriously compromised the political process. Now there is a chance to save this process," foreign ministry spokeswoman Christiane Wirzt said.

"What is important now is embracing this opportunity, stopping the airstrikes, ceasing targeting civilians and providing humanitarian access," added Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Twitter. — Agencies

Assad vows to retake whole country

My government's eventual goal is to retake all of the country, large swathes of which are controlled by rebel forces or IS. It will be possible to put an end to this problem (terrorism) in less than a year if opposition supply routes from Turkey, Jordan and Iraq are severed. But if not, the solution will take a long time and will incur a heavy price.Rs —Bashar al-Assad, syrian president

Figures of despair

• 2.5 lakh people have been killed in the Syrian civil war in the past five years 
• 1.9 lakh injured so far in violence in the war-torn nation
• 500 people estimated killed in this month so far
• $255bn is economic losses estimated in past five years of the violent crisis 
• 55.4% is the life expectancy of Syrians now as compared to 70% in 2010