Syria Truce to Take Effect in One Week: Lavrov
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that a truce is come into force in Syria within a week, calling on the Arab country’s opposition groups to return to the peace talks.
“…the opposition and those who control various groups of opposition will have no more reasons to somehow avoid meeting their obligations,” Lavrov made the remarks on Friday during a press conference after talks among members of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) in Munich, the Tass news agency reported.
He added, “We have agreed to set up a task force which will have a meeting in Geneva tomorrow and will be working on a regular basis, co-chaired by Russia and the United States, with the participation of experts, and the goal of this task force is to help the UN and other humanitarian agencies to carry out their obligations with regards to civilians.”
The Russian foreign minster stressed that the recent Geneva peace talks which were suspended on February 3 in the wake of the Syrian army’s recent major gains on the ground will be resumed.
"We have written down that talks should resume as soon as possible in strict compliance with resolution 2254, that is without any ultimatums, without any preconditions. And talks should include a wide range of opposition forces," he said.
Earlier, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev had raised the specter of an interminable conflict or even a world war if powers failed to negotiate an end to the fighting in Syria, which has killed 250,000 people, caused a refugee crisis and empowered Daesh (ISIL) militants.
Ministers at Thursday's talks wrangled over three core issues: a gradual cessation of hostilities with a firm end date, humanitarian access to cities being besieged by both sides and a commitment that Syrian parties return to Geneva for political negotiations.
Syria’s main opposition group welcomed the plan reached at the meeting, saying it should prove to be effective before it joins the talks that are expected to resume later this month.
The Munch meeting saw the participation of diplomatic delegations from Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, the US as well as the Arab League, the European Union and the United Nations.