After discussions in Geneva, US and Russia agree on the Syrian issue

Geneva : The Foreign Ministers of the US and Russia have announced that the discussions about the Syrian conflict have been successful and that both the countries have reached an agreement about Syria. The announcement was made after the discussions lasting for almost 13 hours, between the US Secretary of State John Kerry and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The US and Russia have agreed to bring about a ceasefire between the Syrian army and the rebels and to plan a joint action against IS terrorists in Syria. The ceasefire will commence at the sunset on Monday. Even though the Syrian government and the rebels have shown readiness to a ceasefire, the announcement has not shown any effect on the terrible conflict in Aleppo.

The US and Russia have agreed on a plan to curb the violence in Syria. The US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed that ‘if this plan can be successfully implemented, the terrible conflict which has raged for almost 5 years and has taken a toll of more than 50 thousand lives may be stopped’. According to this plan, the Syrian army operation against the rebels in Syria’s Aleppo and other provinces will be suspended. The ceasefire will be implemented from the sunset of Monday. After 7 days of ceasefire, the US and Russia will jointly carry out attacks on the terrorist organisations IS and Jabal Al Nusra. The US and Russia have also agreed to create a ‘Joint Centre’ for this purpose.

The US Secretary of State has expressed satisfaction saying that this agreement between the US and Russia over the conflict in Syria, is a landmark event. Russian foreign minister has said that the Syrian government is ready for a ceasefire. The US-backed organisation of the Syrian rebels has however expressed a cautious reaction to the ceasefire. Expressing satisfaction over the ceasefire, the spokesman of the rebels’ organization has asked whether the government of President Assad is serious about it.

After Russia started air attacks in Syria, the differences between the US and Russia had aggravated. The US had been alleging that Russia was attacking the rebels while ostensibly targeting IS terrorists. Russia had been alleging that the US was not sharing details about the rebels’ whereabouts. But after the successful discussions in Geneva, the Russian foreign minister has expressed satisfaction that Russia would now be able to differentiate between the Syrian terrorists and the rebels.

While the ceasefire is being announced, there are news about severe confrontations between the Syrian army and the rebels in the city of Aleppo. And therefore doubts are being expressed whether the ceasefire will really begin from Monday night. Such ceasefire attempts in Syria had failed earlier and the government of President Assad and the rebels had blamed each other for the failure.