Syria cease-fire set for Saturday under new US-Russia plan

WASHINGTON – The United States and Russia agreed Monday on a new cease-fire for Syria that will take effect Saturday, U.S. officials said, even as major questions over enforcing and responding to violations of the truce were left unresolved. Where in Syria the fighting must stop and where counterterrorism operations can continue also must be addressed.

The officials said the new timeline for the hoped-for breakthrough comes after the two former Cold War foes, which are backing opposing sides in Syria’s civil war, agreed on terms for the “cessation of hostilities” between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and armed opposition groups. Those sides must accept the deal by Friday.

The truce will not cover the Islamic State, the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and any other militias designated as terrorist organizations by the U.N. Security Council. Both the U.S. and Russia are still targeting those groups with airstrikes. An announcement is expected after presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin speak by telephone Monday, according to the officials, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter ahead of time and demanded anonymity.

Even if the cease-fire takes hold, fighting will by no means cease in Syria.

Russia will surely press on with an air campaign that it insists is targeting terrorists, but which the U.S. and its partners say is mainly hitting “moderate” opposition groups and killing civilians. While IS tries to expand its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and neighboring Iraq, al-Nusra is unlikely to end its effort to overthrow Assad. The Kurds have been fighting IS, even as they face attacks from America’s NATO ally Turkey. And Assad has his own history of broken promises when it comes to military action.

All of these dynamics make the truce hard to maintain.

The plan largely follows the blueprint set by Washington, Moscow and 15 other countries at a conference in Germany earlier this month. That agreement called for a truce by Feb. 19, a deadline that was missed.

Beyond the new cease-fire date, Monday’s agreement sets up a “communications hotline” and, if needed, a working group to promote and monitor the truce. Violations are to be addressed by the working group with an eye toward restoring compliance and cooling tensions. The deal also calls for “non-forcible means” to be exhausted before other means are pursued for punishing transgressors.

Any party can report violations to the working group being co-chaired by the U.S. and Russia.

The two countries also will share “pertinent information” about territory held by rebel groups accepting the truce

The timing of the cease-fire is only days ahead of Moscow’s proposal earlier this month for it to start on March 1. Washington rejected that offer at the time, saying it wanted an “immediate cease-fire” and not one that would allow Syria and its Russian backer to make a last-ditch effort for territorial gains in the Arab country’s north and south.

While negotiations dragged, however, Russian airstrikes pummeled areas in and around Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. And Assad’s military made significant gains on the ground.

Syria’s conflict started with violent government repression of largely peaceful protests five years ago, but quickly became a full-blown rebellion against Assad and a proxy battle between his Shiite-backed government and Sunni-supported rebels.

The war has killed more than 250,000 people, created Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II and allowed the Islamic State to carve out territory across Syria and neighboring Iraq. Independent of Russia, a U.S.-led coalition is carrying out a separate bombing campaigns in Syria, targeting IS militants.