So what we want to see is the regime to comply with the cessation of hostilities, which only applies to those who have signed up to the cessation of hostilities.
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The current deal in Syria is a cessation of hostilities.
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All parties are obliged to observe cessation of hostilities agreement.
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The "cessation of hostilities" of last February has predictably collapsed.
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Damascus blames the rebels for breaking the cessation of hostilities.
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READ: Syria's cessation of hostilities, explained The United States and Russia helped lead the negotiation of a "cessation of hostilities" between a handful of rebel groups and the Syrian regime, which took effect Friday.
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"A nationwide cessation of hostilities must urgently be implemented," leaders said.
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What's the difference between a "cessation of hostilities" and a ceasefire?
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And in Syria, an announced "cessation of hostilities" has not materialized.
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The cessation of hostilities closely affects Syria's neighbors, most notably Turkey.
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Violence continues despite a fragile cessation of hostilities reached last month.
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With the cessation of hostilities finally came a glimmer of peace.
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Previous attempts at a cessation of hostilities in Syria have quickly unraveled.
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No trust in ceasefires or the cessation of hostilities or humanitarian corridors.
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That's when a "cessation of hostilities" is set to go into effect.
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The YPG has announced it will abide by the cessation of hostilities.
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" Pompeo issued a statement: "The time is now for the cessation of hostilities.
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Any faith father Ahmed had in the cessation of hostilities has been crushed.
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" He continued, "Russia has pledged ... that there should be a cessation of hostilities.
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There are distinctions between a ceasefire, a cessation of hostilities and a truce.
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In international diplomacy, a ceasefire is more formal than a cessation of hostilities.
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However, just a call for cessation of hostilities does not go far enough.
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The cessation of hostilities will be enforced by a United Nations task force.
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Various reports cited violations of the cessation of hostilities as reason for the interruption.
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That's supposed to happen soon, followed by a "cessation of hostilities" within a week.
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However, a "cessation of hostilities" that began in February has now all but unraveled.
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"Everyone more or less agrees, the cessation of hostilities is still holding," he said.
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"There has been no cessation of hostilities," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday.
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We share Syrians' frustration about continued cessation of hostilities violations, mostly by the Assad regime.
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That is another reason to fear that the cessation of hostilities will be short-lived.
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Under the cessation of hostilities, fresh humanitarian aid has reached areas hit by recent fighting.
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"The ultimate aim is the permanent cessation of hostilities," he later told Reuters by telephone.
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There must be an immediate cessation of hostilities, in compliance with all Security Council resolutions.
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Even if there is a "cessation of hostilities", aid workers will not rush in recklessly.
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And then it includes the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and delivering a real cessation of hostilities.
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A cessation of hostilities is more an orchestrated lull in the fighting than a formal ceasefire.
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"Without designating those responsible, we don't see any credibility to this cessation of hostilities," Hijab said.
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It's not ISIS How will the fighting between these groups fit within the cessation of hostilities?
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But as with the previous cessation of hostilities in February, this agreement may be short-lived.
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Syria enjoyed two months of relative peace after a nationwide "cessation of hostilities" began in late February.
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The cessation of hostilities deal is the first of its kind to be attempted in four years.
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A cessation of hostilities agreement has unraveled and fighting has resumed on numerous fronts in western Syria.
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Furthermore, "other terrorist organizations designated by the U.N. Security Council" are excluded from the cessation of hostilities.
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The statement said the attack was a response to insurgent violations of the cessation of hostilities agreement.
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Kirby said the Syrian cessation of hostilities was "very much in peril" because of the ongoing violations.
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But the cessation of hostilities, which followed a weekend of heavy combat in the city, is fragile.
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The US and Russia helped to broker what was called a "cessation of hostilities agreement" last month.
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That manifesto then spans cessation of hostilities, law and order, economic growth, natural disaster and political theory.
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A fragile "cessation of hostilities" has reduced, but not ended, the violence over the last two weeks.
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" She added that any violations of the cessation of hostilities must be met with a "sober, coordinated response.
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Kerry said on Sunday that he and Lavrov had provisionally agreed the terms of a "cessation of hostilities".
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A "cessation of hostilities" agreement in Syria is due to take effect at midnight (2200 GMT on Friday).
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The Syrian military declared a cessation of hostilities on Saturday in the rebel-controlled region near the capital.
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The Kremlin said the leaders agreed that the cessation of hostilities had started yielding its first positive results.
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Major world powers agreed this week to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria and delivery of immediate aid.
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Setting benchmarks and monitoring the cessation of hostilities won't be easy, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
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As recently as this month, a group of world powers agreed on a date for cessation of hostilities.
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They also agreed to what U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria.
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Kerry argued that a cessation of hostilities was largely holding as peace talks resumed in Geneva this week.
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They also discussed the progress negotiators in Geneva are making toward developing "modalities" toward a cessation of hostilities.
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A cessation of hostilities places a temporary pause on the conflict so that humanitarian aid can reach civilians.
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The first priority, said de Mistura on Monday, will be the "possibility" of such a cessation of hostilities.
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Russia hoped the cessation of hostilities - which excludes Islamic State and Nusra Front fighters - would hold, he said.
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The Islamic State group is not included in a cessation of hostilities agreement that took effect on Feb.
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" He indicated he didn't think the cessation of hostilities would be immediate, saying people need to be "realistic.
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"To achieve this goal and to promote an effective and sustainable cessation of hostilities, the Russian Federation and the United States will establish a communication hotline and, if necessary and appropriate, a working group to exchange relevant information after the cessation of hostilities has gone into effect," the statement says.
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"What we are looking at is ... is a clear path forward to a nationwide cessation of hostilities," Toner said.
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"My priority will be to gain a re-commitment from all sides to the cessation of hostilities," he said.
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As part of that swap, three districts in southern Zabul Province were to try a brief cessation of hostilities.
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Mr. Obama called the discussion on Syria "productive" about what a real cessation of hostilities would actually look like.
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"All hopes are that the cessation of hostilities will further make access possible in the week ahead," he added.
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"We believe we have made progres on both the humanitarian front and the cessation of hostilities front," Kerry said.
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The fragile cessation of hostilities agreement has, however, reduced violence in western Syria, allowing more aid to be delivered.
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De Mistura's remarks about the cessation of hostilities, which he delivered by video conference from Geneva, were framed cautiously.
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She noted the importance of Kerry's use of the phrase "cessation of hostilities," as opposed to the word ceasefire.
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Damascus described the truces as an attempt to salvage a wider "cessation of hostilities" agreement in place since February.
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The "Cessation of Hostilities" agreement is now simply a paper document with bullet holes in it from both directions.
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Last week, the United States and Russia announced a "cessation of hostilities" between some of the main factions in Syria.
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She called the resolution a "modest step" that would extend sanctions for 45 days and demand a cessation of hostilities.
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Russia suggested it might not stop its air strikes, even when the cessation of hostilities takes effect in a week.
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His briefing comes three days before a planned cessation of hostilities that has been negotiated by American and Russian diplomats.
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Truce, cessation of hostilities, cease-fire, armistice — these terms are often used interchangeably these days, as if they were synonyms.
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A cessation of hostilities is broader and more formal than a truce, but is not quite a cease-fire agreement.
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" In an UN Security Council statement, Mistura said that the Council "has the responsibility to relaunch the cessation of hostilities.
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"We're working for a declaration that can reassure the actual cessation of hostilities to become more solid," he told reporters.
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This came ahead of a planned "cessation of hostilities" in Syria's war, thrashed out by America and Russia in Munich.
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The cessation of hostilities and local truces do not include Islamic State or al Qaeda's Syrian branch, the Nusra Front.
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The cessation of hostilities is the most hopeful sign in years in the nation that's been torn by civil war.
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"We're very skeptical" the cessation of hostilities will work, said one European diplomat, who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive matters.
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The United States and Russia say they are committed to the cessation of hostilities and that it extends to Aleppo.
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Fighting around Aleppo has become the biggest threat to the fragile cessation of hostilities that went into force on Feb.
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On midnight Saturday, a limited cessation of hostilities came into effect in Syria after negotiations between the US and Russia.
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The cessation of hostilities deal was a compromise because not all warring factions agreed to the terms of a ceasefire.
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International powers agreed to try to bring about a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria's five-year civil war this week.
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Syrian women have successfully negotiated cessation of hostilities between armed actors in several areas to allow the passage of aid.
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Talks have centered on the paragraph demanding a cessation of hostilities for 30 days to allow aid access and medical evacuations.
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If a nationwide cessation of hostilities could not be achieved now, local truces were needed to enable aid access, Egeland said.
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The United States and Russia have announced plans for a cessation of hostilities in Syria to take effect starting on Saturday.
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The "cessation of hostilities" agreed by the United States and Russia is due to take hold on Saturday morning from midnight.
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Hijab reiterated opposition complaints that the United States had made many concessions to Russia, including on the cessation of hostilities agreement.
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This is so that U.S., Russian and Syrian forces do not attack groups that are abiding by the cessation of hostilities.
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Russia will maintain an aviation support center in Syria to monitor compliance with the ongoing cessation of hostilities, the Kremlin said.
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Should the fragile "cessation of hostilities" that Russia and America brokered last month fall apart, it can re-escalate very quickly.
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And if they're not serious about it then it becomes very, very difficult to hold on to a cessation of hostilities.
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The American skepticism is partly rooted in the failed agreement for a cessation of hostilities reached with the Russians in February.
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As of now, we will send messages to all the commands in the field to abide by this cessation of hostilities.
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The ministry said the cessation of hostilities in Syria was broadly holding despite what it described as some provocations and shootings.
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Beginning at midnight, both sides have formed committees to observe the cessation of hostilities and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.
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The UN deliveries are part of an agreement world powers still hope might lead to a "cessation of hostilities" by Friday.
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Peace talks brought about a major, but not complete halt in violence after a cessation of hostilities was announced February 26.
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"Department officials expressed strong concerns about the attack on the coalition-supported counter-ISIL forces at the At-Tanf garrison, which included forces that are participants in the cessation of hostilities in Syria, and emphasized that those concerns would be addressed through ongoing diplomatic discussions on the cessation of hostilities," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Saturday.
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It is the heaviest bombardment of Idlib, a stronghold for rebel groups, since a cessation of hostilities was agreed back in February.
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Bogdanov was also quoted as saying all accusations that Russia was violating a cessation of hostilities in Syria were unfounded and provocative.
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Under the terms of the cessation of hostilities in February, the agreement foresaw proportionate response in self-defense, if and when attacked.
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Escalating fighting there helped ruin a February cessation of hostilities agreement which had paved the way for unsuccessful peace talks in Geneva.
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But we are prepared, the Yemeni government is prepared, to agree to a cessation of hostilities if the Houthis agree to it.
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They are taking a political risk because they are accepting a negotiation in which they are committing to a cessation of hostilities.
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And while Ward said the number of airstrikes has slowed dramatically since the cessation of hostilities began, residents are far from optimistic.
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Russian state media said that the country halted airstrikes in certain parts of Syria in accordance with the cessation of hostilities agreement.
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The "cessation of hostilities" was the result of talks between the two countries as co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group.
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The deadline for any group in Syria to indicate it is participating in the cessation of hostilities is noon Friday in Damascus.
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The agreement, which began last week, called for a cessation of hostilities and the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Syria.
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That separation is one of the conditions in the cessation-of-hostilities agreement Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lavrov announced on Sept. 9.
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Mr. Kerry has demanded a return to the cessation of hostilities agreement he negotiated with Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov on Sept.
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" Obama acknowledged the cessation of hostilities in Syria between government and opposition forces is "very fragile" and in danger of "breaking down.
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The "cessation of hostilities" agreed to by the United States and Russia is due to take hold on Saturday morning from midnight.
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If the current cessation of hostilities breaks down, that ride will likely continue, perhaps under a new president not so philosophically inclined.
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" Hours later, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo followed with a similar statement, saying, "The time is now for the cessation of hostilities.
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Even if a cessation of hostilities is enforced, aid workers remain concerned that food could continue to be diverted by warring parties.
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The committee was meeting in Saudi Arabia on Monday to discuss a U.S.-Russian plan to bring about a "cessation of hostilities".
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The "cessation of hostilities," brokered by the United States and Russia, is due to take effect at midnight (2200 GMT on Friday).
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Multiple attempts at peace, including a 2015 peace deal and a cessation of hostilities agreement in December, have failed to stop the fighting.
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"It is very clear that the cessation of hostilities is frayed and at risk," Kerry told delegates at the Oslo Forum near Oslo.
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Jeffrey Feltman, the under-secretary of political affairs, told the council that the cessation of hostilities needed to be put back on track.
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At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the cessation of hostilities to keep the situation from getting out of control.
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At moments during a nearly hourlong news conference, Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lavrov used the phrase "cessation of hostilities" and "cease-fire" interchangeably.
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McGoldrick said he hoped the cessation of hostilities would be extended and would herald a resumption of peace talks that collapsed in August.
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Nusra has mostly laid low since the partial cessation of hostilities, but opposition outrage over violations may have emboldened it to play spoiler.
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Oman confirmed that delegates from the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital Sanaa had agreed to abide by a cessation of hostilities starting on Nov.
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Making a cessation of hostilities work is a matter of trust, about building it in Syria and around the world, de Mistura said.
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Both rebel groups and the Syrian government say they are respecting the cessation of hostilities agreement, while accusing each other of violating it.
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A cessation of hostilities implies a temporary halt in fighting, is usually nonbinding and commonly happens at the start of a peace process.
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Under the terms of the cessation of hostilities, the warring parties agree to use proportionate response in self-defense if and when attacked.
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READ: Syria's cessation of hostilities, explained The shelling came from rebel-controlled neighborhoods in the capital, a military source told the news agency.
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As one of the few remaining doctors in Syria, I have watched the "cessation of hostilities" that was agreed on in February crumble.
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After meeting with Iranian officials, he said he had emphasized the need to maintain the partial truce, known as a cessation of hostilities.
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But he made it clear that global powers first needed to revive the cessation of hostilities they negotiated at the end of February.
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Peace talks broke up last April after the opposition delegation quit, accusing the government of ignoring a cessation of hostilities brokered in February.
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Western states have said the cessation of hostilities appears to be largely holding, hoping that will allow for peace talks to get underway.
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"As humanitarians, we need unfettered and sustained access, and that requires a cessation of hostilities by all parties to the conflict," said Delafield.
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"That's why the United States will do everything we can to maximize the chances of success in this cessation of hostilities," he said.
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He said a cessation of hostilities across Syria was vital if another battle like the bloody struggle for Aleppo was to be avoided.
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Members of the Security Council are supporting a resolution calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities to protect civilians and allow humanitarian access.
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Russia has promised to indefinitely suspend airstrikes in the "green zone," where groups that have accepted the cessation of hostilities are in control.
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World powers later agreed on a "cessation of hostilities" to begin within a week, but the deadline passed with no letup in the fighting.
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"We have agreed to implement a nationwide cessation of hostilities in one week's time," Mr. Kerry said early Friday morning, after all-day meetings.
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Meantime, the Syrian Network for Human Rights has released a report on the aftermath of the cessation of hostilities that was agreed in February.
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"It is essential that there is a cessation of hostilities in order to give the on-going political negotiations room to breathe," she said.
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Pedersen told Reuters TV the U.N. was extremely concerned about the humanitarian consequences of the crisis and called for an "immediate cessation of hostilities".
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Humanitarian aid to besieged towns was supposed to be the first part of the deal, followed by a "cessation of hostilities" within a week.
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In Washington, the U.S. State Department said U.S.-Russian talks about establishing a separate, nation-wide cessation of hostilities in Syria were making progress.
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"And we will be in a position to say, clearly -- and to respond, if necessary, if there are violations of that cessation of hostilities."
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Washington (CNN)Almost a week into the very fragile cessation of hostilities in Syria, senior U.S. officials are expressing cautious optimism about its prospects.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Defence Ministry said on Sunday a cessation of hostilities in Syria had been violated 29 times in the past 24 hours.
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U.S.-Russian cooperation has already brought about a lull in the war via the "cessation of hostilities agreement", though many violations have been reported.
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The Syrian government, its war effort buoyed since September by the Russian air force, has accepted the cessation of hostilities agreement announced on Monday.
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However, a source in the opposition told Reuters that Ahrar al-Sham would back the cessation of hostilities in an announcement later on Monday.
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But he sounded far more cautious here than he did in Munich in February when he announced an earlier "cessation of hostilities" that failed.
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U.S.-Russian cooperation has already brought about a lull in the war via a "cessation of hostilities agreement", though many violations have been reported.
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U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura hailed the plan as a step in the right direction towards a real cessation of hostilities.
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The cessation of hostilities was "a glimmer of hope", Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said, although he accused the opposition of violating the agreement.
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A UN-announced cessation of hostilities agreement is meant to take effect on April 10, ahead of peace talks in Kuwait on April 18.
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To them, doing so means effectively ceding territory to the regime, as they have little faith in a long-term cessation of hostilities holding.
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All warring factions are mired in distrust, and suspect one another of breaking the cessation of hostilities deal, which was brokered on February 27.
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"We have been clear about Russia's obligations to ensure regime compliance with the cessation of hostilities," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in June.
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The United States, Russia and other parties have agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria that is set to begin Saturday from midnight.
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They point out that it was Russia, along with the United States, which co-brokered the current cessation of hostilities in Syria, however fragile.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Defense Ministry said on Thursday that a cessation of hostilities in Syria had been violated nine times in the past 24 hours.
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"The delegations have confirmed their readiness to continue interaction in order to achieve the full implementation of the cessation of hostilities in Syria," he said.
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The Observatory said 135 people have been killed in areas covered by the 'cessation of hostilities' agreement since it came into force on Feb. 27.
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So we've been very analytically precise about this that, under the cessation of hostilities, the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda's affiliate, is not a protected party.
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Major powers agreed last week to a limited cessation of hostilities in Syria in a deal that takes effect at the end of this week.
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The Syrian government, plus Russia, have agreed to end aerial bombardments "against the armed opposition groups and parties to the cessation of hostilities," he said.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian military declared a cessation of hostilities on Saturday in the rebel-controlled Eastern Ghouta region near the capital, state television reported.
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After the seven-day cessation of hostilities and delivery of aid, "US and Russian experts will work together to defeat Daesh and Nusra," Kerry said.
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The UN Security Council voted unanimously, with less than hour to spare, to endorse a Russian and American-brokered cessation of hostilities deal in Syria.
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After the U.N. Security Council agreed on a 30-day cessation of hostilities, Russia proposed a five-hour daily pause which collapsed quickly on Tuesday.
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" He also told reporters that Kiir said government troops "will also be observing a cessation of hostilities in order to create an atmosphere for dialogue.
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A cessation of hostilities in Syria took effect three weeks ago, reducing violence but not halting the fighting as peace talks take place in Geneva.
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He hoped Astana might bring a cessation of hostilities in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, where Assad's forces are besieging almost 400,000 people.
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The United States and Russia had agreed to a cessation of hostilities earlier this month with a goal of implementing the ceasefire within a week.
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"It is possible to help restore the cessation of hostilities, significantly reduce violence and help create the space for a genuine political transition," he said.
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One of the main purposes of the cessation of hostilities is to allow aid to reach civilians, especially in besieged areas cut off from supplies.
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U.N. adviser Jan Egeland nevertheless said the cessation of hostilities could rescue the civilian population from "the abyss" and end the "black chapter" of sieges.
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He noted that all options would need the cooperation of both parties, a sustained cessation of hostilities and additional resources to ensure they were viable.
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"The coalition announces that it will continue to maintain the cessation of hostilities," it said, reiterating that it retained the right to respond as appropriate.
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" Henrietta Fore, the executive director of Unicef, who is to visit Syria this weekend, said "we desperately need a cessation of hostilities in northwest Syria.
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Violence was "soaring back to the levels we saw prior to the cessation of hostilities," said United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein.
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The cessation of hostilities agreement falls short of a formal ceasefire, since it was not signed by the main warring parties, the opposition and government forces.
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If this agreement is to work, this bombing will have to stop: no cessation of hostilities will last if moderate opposition groups continue to be targeted.
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Mr. Putin announced the agreement to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria on television late Monday night, underscoring its importance as a joint Russian-American effort.
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Under the terms of the agreement, the Syrian government and Syria's armed opposition are being asked to agree to a "cessation of hostilities," effective this Saturday.
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The strikes come on the heels of last week's 72-hour "cessation of hostilities" between Houthi rebels and a pro-Yemeni coalition led by Saudi forces.
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Meet the man saving Yazidi slaves from ISIS However, the so-called "cessation of hostilities" has significantly disintegrated, in turn making humanitarian assistance delivery more difficult.
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"Both parties called for a cessation of hostilities and armed conflict in and around the facility, essential to resume production operations," it said of Thursday's talks.
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The Syrian government needs to recognize that "if this keeps up, we may be looking at a complete breakdown" of the cessation of hostilities, Toner said.
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THE DAY after a proposed "cessation of hostilities" came into effect at midnight on the night of February 26th, relative calm prevailed over most of Syria.
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In short, the cessation of hostilities calls for the Syrian regime and the opposition fighters to halt attacks and implement a U.N. "road map" for peace.
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Even as the cessation of hostilities agreement was coming into force he was talking about achieving his ultimate goal of retaking the whole of the country.
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The cessation of hostilities plan does not include Islamic State or the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda affiliate that is widely deployed in opposition-held areas.
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Ibrahim Jabawi said the agreement was reached during ongoing talks in a town in southern Syria that also includes a cessation of hostilities by both sides.
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LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's government said on Sunday the ultimate aim of its talks with the Islamist militant group Boko Haram was a permanent cessation of hostilities.
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"A lot still is needed such as the cessation of hostilities and ending the war of words," said Samuel, a 32-year-old resident of Juba.
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Earlier in the day, the U.S. and Russia issued a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to a truce, or cessation of hostilities, as they call it.
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Israel and Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah group fought a month-long war in 2006 that concluded with a cessation of hostilities but without a formal peace deal.
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Last week, UN aid convoys reached five towns with humanitarian supplies, in what was billed as a confidence building measure ahead of a cessation of hostilities.
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Adding to the confusion of the situation, Vice President Mike Pence late Monday said Mr. Trump had asked the Turkish government for a cessation of hostilities.
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The cessation of hostilities, brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday, went into effect on Monday night.
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"The Secretary-General reminds all parties of their obligations to protect civilians and ensure freedom of movement," Guterres's spokesman said, urging an immediate cessation of hostilities.
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Philip Hammond, British foreign secretary, said that the cessation of hostilities depended entirely on whether Russia would "stop or at least significantly scale back that bombing".
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The bill's introduction comes two days after the start of a brokered cessation of hostilities in the country, ahead of planned peace talks in Kuwait next Monday.
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"Our position remains the call for a complete nationwide cessation of hostilities but of course anything that contributes to saving lives, we welcome it," Chahine-Mankouche said.
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The incident did not immediately appear to be related to the current cessation of hostilities between the Syrian government and its allies and non-jihadist insurgent groups.
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"It warns that the impact of the regime and its allies' offensives around Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta are a threat to the cessation of hostilities," he said.
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The Nusra Front said Friday that it rejected the cessation of hostilities and urged insurgents to intensify their attacks against government forces and their allies, Reuters reported.
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Given the armistice's indefinite duration — during which the parties committed to "a complete cessation of hostilities" — the right to resume hostilities would require a new legal justification.
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Salem Meslet, the spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee, told CNN's Nic Robertson that the Syrian regime has committed 15 violations of the cessation of hostilities agreement.
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Salem Meslet, a spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee, told CNN's Nic Robertson that the Syrian regime had committed 15 violations of the cessation of hostilities agreement.
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World powers agreed to a cessation of hostilities in Syria, but together with Syrian opposition groups said Russia was undermining prospects of implementing it by bombing civilians.
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"Our hope is by refreshing this agreement ... we can build momentum again toward a broadly observed cessation of hostilities," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a briefing.
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The US says that such a date would likely be too late for opposition forces in Aleppo and elsewhere, and have demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities.
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Despite the partial withdrawal, Russian warplanes have been carrying out new sorties against positions belonging to Islamic State, which is not covered by the cessation of hostilities.
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The government had approved aid deliveries to those locations before the cessation of hostilities but had failed to issue a single letter of authorization, Mr. Egeland said.
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But activists and residents also said there had been a reduction of Russian strikes in Idlib province since a Turkish-Russian brokered cessation of hostilities late December.
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"We agreed to steps that, if implemented in good faith, can address two serious problems that I just described about the cessation" of hostilities, Mr. Kerry said.
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He added that the United States would reassess the prospects for cooperation with Russia in light of this "egregious violation" of the week-old cessation of hostilities.
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On Friday, Russia urged the United Nations Security Council to pass a draft resolution endorsing the agreement, the third cessation of hostilities declared in Syria this year.
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France and Britain convene an emergency meeting of the Security Council and press for enforcement of last month's Resolution 2401, calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
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Hours after international powers reached a deal to reportedly begin ending the fighting in Syria, humanitarian officials say the purported cessation of hostilities needs to happen immediately.
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"It has the world's largest concentration of displaced people and urgently need a cessation of hostilities so as not to turn it into a graveyard," Laerke added.
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"The call for an immediate cessation of hostilities... has gone unanswered," the United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator in Syria Ali al-Za'tari said of the Feb.
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"The United Nations has repeatedly called for a cessation of hostilities to enable humanitarian aid deliveries, and the evacuation of the sick and wounded," the statement said.
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He reiterated the world body's call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and immediate humanitarian access, as well as medical evacuations and the chance for people to leave.
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A peace deal signed in August 2015 didn&apost stop the fighting, nor did a cessation of hostilities agreement this past December and a declaration on June 27.
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But Friday was also the day that a "cessation of hostilities" announced by the United States, Russia and more than a dozen other countries, was to take effect.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Turkey's shelling of Syria undermined a cessation of hostilities there and the start of a political process.
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Here's a quick guide to what's going on: Syria's five-year long civil war was reignited with a vengeance last week after a brief cessation of hostilities ended.
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RELATED: Cessation of hostilities in Syria continues to hold There remains a raging debate inside the administration about whether to acknowledge the ETF operations once they begin. Gen.
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On February 12, Kerry announced that world powers meeting in Munich, Germany, had agreed on a target date for a cessation of hostilities in Syria a week later.
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Late on Monday, the High Negotiations Council, which represents the opposition in peace talks, issued a statement indicating it had accepted the terms of the cessation of hostilities.
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"We are prepared to extend the cessation of hostilities, while working to strengthen it and expand deliveries of assistance," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in the statement.
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To get the talks going again, a "cessation of hostilities" agreement was hammered out by John Kerry, America's secretary of state, and his Russian opposite number, Sergei Lavrov.
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The cessation of hostilities was no cure-all, but its revitalization could end this rolling massacre in Aleppo and prevent the siege that we all fear is coming.
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Authorities agreed in June to allow U.N. supplied food deliveries into the suburb under a cessation of hostilities deal, but just one shipment has made it since then.
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The increase in fighting has left a cessation of hostilities agreement in tatters and comes after the virtual collapse of UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva last week.
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"Our objective remains, and has always been, a single nationwide cessation of hostilities covering all of Syria — not a series of local truces," Toner said in his statement.
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The mediator, Staffan de Mistura, told journalists in Geneva that the cessation of hostilities agreement that took effect on Monday after several weeks of negotiations was largely holding.
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Efforts to revive a temporary cessation of hostilities failed, and frustration intensified among American allies that the closed-door negotiations between Washington and Moscow had yielded no relief.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week called for a cessation of hostilities between the warring parties in Yemen, a call echoed by his British counterpart, Jeremy Hunt.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian military source said on Saturday the Syrian army had not committed any violations to the cessation of hostilities that came into effect at midnight.
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Most important, it's not clear that a "cessation of hostilities" is enforceable—or that the Assad regime and its allies have any intention of abiding by its terms.
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A fragile "cessation of hostilities" truce has held in Syria for over a month as the various parties try to negotiate an end to the five-year-old war.
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Kazakhstan, which hosts the meetings, said Monday's agenda included reviewing the implementation of the cessation of hostilities and discussing a proposal from the Syrian armed opposition about the ceasefire.
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On Thursday, the U.N. special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said the country's nationwide "cessation of hostilities" is under threat of collapse, and a humanitarian disaster is unfolding.
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"The cessation of hostilities in and on Aleppo for a few hours on Thursday, as announced by Moscow, can only be the starting point," he said in a statement.
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"This all hinges on the idea that we as well as the Russians can influence the main combatants on the ground to uphold a cessation of hostilities," he said.
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Major powers agreed on Friday to implement a cessation of hostilities in Syria and to expand delivery of humanitarian aid to people caught up in the conflict, officials said.
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Syrian state media quoted Assad as telling ARD the Syrian army had refrained from responding to truce violations in order to give the cessation of hostilities agreement a chance.
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Earlier Friday, he said an agreement would make a major difference in terms of the cessation of hostilities and have a big impact on the delivery of humanitarian aid.
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Kirby said the Syrian cessation of hostilities was "very much in peril" because of the violations and urged Moscow to use its influence over Assad to halt the attacks.
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Meanwhile, United Nations Special Envoy to Syria Staffan De Mistura said Friday he planned to resume the intra-Syrian peace talks on Monday, assuming the cessation of hostilities holds.
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Syria's cessation of hostilities, explained The agreement The agreement calls for the Syrian regime and the opposition fighters to halt attacks and implement a U.N. "road map" for peace.
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Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama on Thursday offered scant optimism that a "cessation of hostilities" agreed to in Syria would take hold when it goes into effect this weekend.
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Western powers have also been critical of Russia's actions in Syria, saying it was undermining the prospects of implementing a recently agreed upon cessation of hostilities by bombing civilians.
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Both Obama and Putin agreed, however, to take steps to ensure both sides abide by the cessation of hostilities deal, the White House and Kremlin said in separate statements.
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The so-called cessation of hostilities, brokered by Russia and the United States in February, has shown signs of crumbling in recent days, with increasing ground clashes and airstrikes.
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The countrywide cessation of hostilities that began then started to crumble within two months, with battles in much of the countryside around Damascus, central and northern Syria, and Aleppo.
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" Ould Cheikh Ahmed said Saudi Arabia is "fully committed to make sure that the next talks take place and particularly supports us with regard to the cessation of hostilities.
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"We are trying very hard to grow these current discussions into a longer lasting ... enforceable, accountable cessation of hostilities that could change the dynamics on the ground," he said.
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The government and rebel groups have agreed to take part in a U.S.-Russian "cessation of hostilities" accord that is due to begin at midnight (2200 GMT on Friday).
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Ivo Tapang, spokesman for 13 armed groups called the Contender Forces of Ambazonia, told Reuters they would not speak to the government unless a cessation of hostilities was observed.
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An agreement solidified last month calls for a cessation of hostilities, the formation of a joint security force and the end of the political feud that started the war.
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But a Syrian Foreign Ministry official accused Saudi Arabia of trying to undermine the cessation of hostilities agreement by saying there would be a "Plan B" if it failed.
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On the one hand, Russia's withdrawal will likely increase the probability of reaching a more permanent solution to replace the cessation of hostilities agreement that is currently in effect.
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Hence, Russia's involvement in Syria had to be short—and the current cessation of hostilities agreement provides a logical point for declaring the mission a success and pulling out.
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The US and Russia have brokered a cessation of hostilities agreement meant to involve the Syrian government and major rebel factions that they hope will take effect this weekend.
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A cessation of hostilities agreement accepted by President Bashar al-Assad's government and most of his enemies, has reduced violence in Syria since it took effect on Feb. 27.
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Under the "cessation of hostilities" announced last week by the United States and Russia, the battle for Khanaser will be allowed to go on, as will many other battles.
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The best we can hope for now is a cessation of hostilities, some small adjustments to how China treats US companies, and some agricultural purchases on China&aposs part.
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The increase in fighting has left a cessation of hostilities agreement in tatters and comes after the virtual collapse of United Nations-brokered peace talks in Geneva last week.
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Envoy Martin Griffiths welcomed a call by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday for a cessation of hostilities ahead of U.N.-led negotiations scheduled to begin next month.
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A fragile "cessation of hostilities" truce has held in Syria for over a month as the various parties try to negotiate an end to Syria's five-year-old civil war.
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"We expect that as a cessation of hostilities is implemented, parties on the ground will have an opportunity to distance themselves from groups excluded from the cessation," said the official.
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"In spite of the several and serious incidents, the cessation of hostilities is still holding, particularly when we compare to what used to be," de Mistura told reporters in Geneva.
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MOSCOW, March 16 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Turkey's shelling of Syria undermined a cessation of hostilities there and the start of a political process.
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The United States and Russia earlier this week called for a voluntary cessation of hostilities - a less formal effort to halt the violence than a ceasefire - to begin on Saturday.
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The hospital strike came amid an increase in violence around Aleppo, a key city in northern Syria, and other regions, despite a nationwide "cessation of hostilities" technically being in force.
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The blasts came as Secretary of State John Kerry said that a "provisional agreement" had been reached on a cessation of hostilities that could begin in the next few days.
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World powers are waiting to reconvene for peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland; previous negotiations achieved a tenuous cessation of hostilities, but nothing approaching a broad agreement to end the war.
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Nauert said the United States supported a U.N. call for a month-long cessation of hostilities to allow for the delivery of aid and an emergency medical evacuation of civilians.
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Syria's government and the opposition face a deadline to declare their official support for the terms of a cessation of hostilities negotiated this week by the United States and Russia.
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"We have repeatedly called on the warring parties to reconcile, but every time, the militants violated the cessation of hostilities, shelled villages, attacked the positions of government troops," he said.
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" Russian planes had joined the regime in hitting hospitals and refugee camps, she said, before going on to accuse the regime of "bombing in defiance of the Cessation of Hostilities.
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On Wednesday, Moscow bowed to international pressure when it announced a daily, three-hour, full cessation of hostilities in Aleppo to allow safe passage for aid convoys into the city.
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Syrian authorities gave our crew access to an area that saw some of the worst fighting in the run-up to the cessation of hostilities: Aleppo's southern suburb of Ramouseh.
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The ceasefire comes after months of negotiations between the US and Russia over a lasting cessation of hostilities in Syria that allows for a political transition, ultimately ending the conflict.
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"Parties to the cessation of hostilities can also call directly the lines of their established contacts within [the Office of the Special Envoy] (either in Damascus or Geneva)," Chahine said.
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Human Rights Watch has documented what appears to be the coordinated ruination of Sunni communities once under ISIS rule, including the wholesale destruction of villages after the cessation of hostilities.
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A fragile "cessation of hostilities" truce has held in Syria for over a month as the various parties to the conflict try to negotiate an end to Syria's civil war.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Russia's Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Wednesday his government was ready to help implement a cessation of hostilities in Syria.
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However, peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending the war have so far failed and the cessation of hostilities agreement has all but collapsed with intensified fighting among warring parties.
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Namely, both sides confirm by Friday at noon (Damascus time) that they are committed to the agreement, and then the cessation of hostilities take effect at midnight leading into Saturday.
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"We continue to encourage all parties to focus on this common threat, which has not subsided, and to work toward a cessation of hostilities, as agreed in Munich," he said.
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Following the meeting on the sidelines of the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders, de Mistura also said it was wrong to declare a cessation of hostilities in Syria dead.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's defense ministry said on Monday it had recorded 15 violations of an agreed cessation of hostilities in Syria in the last 24 hours, RIA news agency reported.
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Royce's comments come a day after members of the International Syria Support Group in Munich, Germany agreed on a plan for a "cessation of hostilities" in the Syrian Civil War.
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There is now "real momentum" for a cessation of hostilities by December, a source in the region familiar with the matter said, though "a million things could still go wrong".
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As the deadline for the cessation of hostilities approached, heavy air strikes were reported to have hit rebel-held areas near Damascus while fighting raged across much of western Syria.
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Envoy Martin Griffiths welcomed a call by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday for a cessation of hostilities ahead of U.N.-led negotiations scheduled to begin next month.
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They have also accused the government of violating a February "cessation of hostilities" agreement, pointing to air strikes on rebel-held areas which have killed dozens of people this week.
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Beginning at sundown on Monday evening, when the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha begins, there will be a "nationwide cessation of hostilities" between rebels and Bashar al-Assad's forces.
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Tuesday for a cessation of hostilities in Yemen and said U.N.-led negotiations to end the civil war should begin next month.
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Another ISSG task force on the cessation of hostilities is handling reports of violations of the truce, which does not include Islamic State or the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
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That meeting was aimed at deepening the cessation of hostilities and forming "some type of political broad lines," which could contribute to Geneva peace talks he has convened around Feb.
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The United States and Russia announced plans on Monday for a cessation of hostilities in Syria, excluding Islamic State and Nusra Front militants, that would take effect starting on Saturday.
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"It warns that the impact of the regime and its allies' offensives around Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta are a threat to the cessation of hostilities," government spokesman Romain Nadal said.
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Toner said any agreement had to chart a clear path on how it would be implemented, and suggested that a nationwide cessation of hostilities did not have to start right away.
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Hitherto the cessation of hostilities has been policed by the United States and Russia, but Syrian rebel groups have accused Russia of joining with Assad's forces to attack them with impunity.
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Houthi negotiators have stayed put in the Yemen capital Sanaa, demanding the cessation of hostilities be fully observed before traveling to Kuwait for talks with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government.
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Antony Blinken, deputy U.S. Secretary of State, said in Geneva that major and regional powers were monitoring the cessation of hostilities to "prevent any escalation" but it was a "challenging process".
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GENEVA (Reuters) - A planned cessation of hostilities in Syria from Saturday night should rescue the civilian population from "the abyss", Jan Egeland, chairman of a humanitarian task force, said on Thursday.
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"We have had some productive conversations about what a real cessation of hostilities would look like that would allow us both ... to focus our attention on common enemies," Obama said Monday.
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Previous diplomatic efforts have resulted in warring parties agreeing to a "cessation of hostilities," a brief pause in the fighting allowing for humanitarian aid to be delivered to suffering civilian populations.
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ASTANA (Reuters) - The U.N. special envoy for Syria said on Tuesday Russia, Turkey and Iran were closing in on a final statement reaffirming a cessation of hostilities between Syrian warring parties.
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Washington (CNN)The US announced Monday it is "suspending its participation in bilateral channels with Russia" that had come about as part of the short-lived cessation of hostilities in Syria.
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Speaking after a meeting with the U.N. special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, Kerry said the cessation of hostilities had been put to the test in the last few weeks.
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"We hold the Russian government responsible for airstrikes in this airspace given their commitment under the cessation of hostilities was to ground air operations where humanitarian assistance was flowing," Rhodes said.
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Syria: Girl, 10, left for dead in rubble, and then ... "From the first minute Russia's been meeting its obligations to enforce the cessation of hostilities in Syria," the Defense Ministry said.
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A so-called cessation of hostilities is in place in other parts of Syria, though that agreement doesn't apply to groups the Russians and Syrians deem to be al-Qaeda affiliates.
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Combatants are required to say whether they will agree to the "cessation of hostilities" in the five-year war by noon on Friday (1000 GMT), and to halt fighting on Saturday.
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The cessation of hostilities between a handful of rebel groups and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began Friday, excluding terrorist groups such as ISIS and al Nusra Front.
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In a statement, Russia's Foreign Ministry said that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, had welcomed the cessation of hostilities during a phone call Sunday.
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When U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced in Munich, Germany, that world powers had agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria, few people expected the guns to go quiet.
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Critics of the Syrian government warned that the latest violence is yet another troubling sign that a planned "cessation of hostilities" in the war-ravaged country is far from taking hold.
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Moscow and Washington have been working to try to revive the original cessation of hostilities by getting new local truces agreed on the ground for short, defined periods at particular locations.
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Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for the First Coastal Division, an FSA group operating in the rural Latakia area, said rebels were committed to a U.S.-Russian deal on a cessation of hostilities.
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"The time is now for the cessation of hostilities, including missile and UAV strikes from Houthi-controlled areas into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates," Pompeo said.
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"The United States is suspending its participation in bilateral channels with Russia that were established to sustain the cessation of hostilities," U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria's foreign minister said on Saturday that victory was within reach in the country and that Damascus hoped de-escalation zones will help reach a cessation of hostilities.
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"If the U.N. says they need 48 hours, of course we support the U.N. But ... our focus is on a nationwide sustainable cessation of hostilities," said State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau.
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U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday the United States was resolved to try to make the cessation of hostilities deal work but that "there are plenty of reasons for scepticism".
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"They agreed on the importance of urgently moving forward simultaneously on implementing the cessation of hostilities agreement, providing vital humanitarian assistance to civilians, and returning to political negotiations," the statement said.
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The cessation of hostilities agreement has been followed by more aid deliveries to opposition-held areas blockaded by the government, though the opposition says the quantities fall far short of needs.
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The three issues listed are defeating ISIS and al Nusra; turning the so-called cessation of hostilities into a durable, nationwide ceasefire; and creating a framework for political transition in Syria.
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But the biggest single siege, of about 200,000 people in Deir ez-Zor, is not affected by the cessation of hostilities because the besieging IS forces are excluded from the agreement.
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Mr. Kerry has been measured in his critiques of Iran, noting Thursday that it had "helped on a few things," including getting an agreement for a cessation of hostilities in Syria.
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"Although a Cessation of Hostilities (CoH) was announced by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) Ceasefire Task Force in February 2016, fighting still persists between combatants in Syria," the warning said.
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"We are very, very concerned about the recent increase in violence and that includes actions that are in contravention of the cessation of hostilities," spokesman Mark Toner told a news briefing.
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The Houthis, who are backed by Iran, indicated a willingness to abide by the terms of the cessation of hostilities established in April, she said, provided other parties also stick to it.
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The latest clashes were a significant escalation in fighting in Eastern Ghouta, where the army had last week declared a temporary but now-defunct cessation of hostilities, Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said.
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The first "nationwide" ceasefire in this time period was agreed in February 2016 by the US and Russia, who declared a "cessation of hostilities" that was quickly adopted by the United Nations.
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But the biggest single siege, of about 200,000 people in Deir al-Zor, is not affected by the cessation of hostilities because the besieging Islamic State forces are excluded from the agreement.
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MUNICH (Reuters) - A cessation of hostilities in Syria can only succeed if Russia stops air strikes supporting Syrian government forces' advance against the opposition, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Friday.
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"The United States is suspending its participation in bilateral channels with Russia that were established to sustain the cessation of hostilities," a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
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Negotiations for a political transition, the cessation of hostilities, and improved humanitarian access to besieged areas inside Syria are the three legs of the US-Russian attempt to end the Syrian war.
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BERLIN (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the cessation of hostilities in force since Saturday was a "glimmer of hope," in an interview with German television to be aired on Tuesday.
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" Russian planes have supported the regime's air force in hitting hospitals and refugee camps, she said, before going on to accuse the regime of "bombing in defiance of the cessation of hostilities.
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Putin's comments came after the United States and Russia announced plans for a cessation of hostilities in Syria, excluding Islamic State and Nusra Front militants, that would take effect starting on Saturday.
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MOSCOW, Feb 29 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday that "the process is underway" in Syria's cessation of hostilities, although it was clear from the beginning that it would not be easy.
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It is against this backdrop that John Kerry, America's secretary of state, laboured for months to stitch together the temporary cessation of hostilities deal that fell apart as soon as it began.
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The United States and Russia on Monday announced plans for a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria that would take effect on Saturday but exclude groups such as Islamic State and Nusra Front.
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The Syrian military source said militants had targeted a warplane while it was landing in Hama province, bringing it down, and calling the attack a breach of a "cessation of hostilities" agreement.
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A task force of world powers was charged with negotiating the terms of the cessation of hostilities, which Kerry said would take place on Friday, but Toner acknowledged had yet to meet.
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The delivery of 26 pallets loaded with 20 tonnes of food came as one opposition official warned that a cessation of hostilities in Syria's civil war was on the verge of collapse.
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The cessation of hostilities is the result of talks between the United States and Russia as co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group, the two countries said in a joint statement.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Tuesday for a cessation of hostilities in Yemen and said U.N.-led negotiations to end the civil war should begin next month.
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"Secondly, the people living in rebel territory don't trust the Assad regime and see this cessation of hostilities as a trick designed so that the regime can take more territory," she said.
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The cessation of hostilities is considered by some to be the most hopeful sign in years that fighting in the nation, where the conflict has killed at least 250,000 people, will subside.
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The Italian-Swedish diplomat said he thought there was a chance to relaunch a cessation of hostilities, which lies in tatters after fierce clashes in Aleppo, by reinforcing and extending local truces.
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Norbert Roettgen, head of the foreign affairs committee in the German parliament, was skeptical about how Russia would behave in the days and weeks ahead, despite agreeing to a cessation of hostilities.
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"The (Salamiya) car bomb attack is not a breach to the truce because it occurred in an area where the cessation of hostilities agreement does not apply," the Observatory's Rami Abdulrahman added.
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"We call again on all parties to cease attacks on civilians and take immediate steps to grant humanitarian access and the cessation of hostilities that the Syrian people desperately need," Kirby added.
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"We did raise and discuss the importance of protecting and maintaining and supporting the cessation of hostilities, which is, as you know, fragile but is there," de Mistura told reporters in Damascus.
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These talks will presumably lay out how far Ankara is willing to go to enforce a cessation of hostilities between regime-held areas and those parts of the north controlled by rebels.
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"The Special Envoy welcomes the restoration of the Cessation of Hostilities, which will spare the Yemeni people further bloodshed and will allow for the expanded delivery of humanitarian assistance," the statement said.
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President Vladimir Putin said Russia had received information that all parties expected to take part in the cessation of hostilities had said they were ready to do so, Russian news agencies reported.
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The fighting in Latakia was focused on areas where insurgent groups had launched an attack on government forces on Monday, and where battles had often erupted despite the cessation of hostilities agreement.
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Daraya, only 12km (seven miles) from Damascus, has been besieged by the government since 2012, but aid agencies gained access to the town during a humanitarian cessation of hostilities earlier this year.
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"The United States is suspending its participation in bilateral channels with Russia that were established to sustain the cessation of hostilities," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a written statement Monday.
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The United States and Russia clinched a ceasefire deal earlier this month that held out the possibility of joint targeting of militants after a cessation of hostilities and delivery of humanitarian aid.
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The statement described as groundless opposition allegations that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were violating an agreement on a cessation of hostilities and on granting access for humanitarian supplies.
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Air strikes killed around 40 people in a crowded market on Tuesday in what may have been the worst incident of its kind since the cessation of hostilities took effect in February.
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After much wrangling, the U.S. and Russia agreed to the terms of a cease-fire (or what they are calling a "cessation of hostilities") that took effect in Syria over the weekend.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.-Russian brokered cessation of hostilities in Syria is holding by and large, although it is not perfect, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Thursday at a briefing.
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"Now is the time to step back from the brink," Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement following the start of the U.N.-backed cessation of hostilities at 2100 GMT on Sunday.
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U.S.-Russian cooperation had already prompted a lull in the war via a "cessation of hostilities agreement" that led to a sharp decline in fighting between rebels and the government in western Syria.
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"Hopefully that is when we will have seen already on the ground the extension of the cessation of hostilities and consolidation of it with these commitments implemented," Kodmani said by phone from Paris.
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Speaking after a meeting with UN Syria envoy Staffan da Mistura on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said a cessation of hostilities in Aleppo would be announced "within hours," reported Russia Today.
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"It (France) condemns the violations of the cessation of hostilities for which the regime is responsible and the restraints placed on the work of humanitarian organizations," Romain Nadal said in a daily briefing.
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United Nations and Red Cross aid deliveries have reached a number of besieged areas in Syria this year, including during a U.S.-Russian-brokered cessation of hostilities agreement that took effect in February.
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A cessation of hostilities agreement brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in February unraveled within weeks, with Washington accusing Assad's forces of violating the pact.
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"Both sides, the opposition and the regime, have contributed to this chaos, and we are working over the next hours intensely in order to try to restore the cessation of hostilities," Kerry said.
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"Discussions between the Russian Federation and United States this week are crucial to efforts to restore the cessation of hostilities," de Mistura's spokeswoman Jessy Chahine told a news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
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The Russian statement described as groundless opposition allegations that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were violating an agreement on a cessation of hostilities and on granting access for humanitarian supplies.
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The United Nations, Red Cross and Syrian Red Crescent have reached some besieged areas since the start of the cessation of hostilities deal, which has helped reduce violence in parts of western Syria.
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It's unclear whether the warring sides would go ahead with a "cessation of hostilities" and lay down their arms, but the days leading up to the scheduled truce has brought some good news.
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Russia is using the negotiations over a cessation of hostilities to drive the U.S. to accept the designation of mainstream Syrian opposition groups as "terrorists" so that Assad can continue to target them.
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If the cessation of hostilities does manage to take hold elsewhere, Landis of the University of Oklahoma said it will likely be eggshell fragile because so many groups are involved in the fighting.
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Each side accuses the other of seeking to wreck the cessation of hostilities agreement that has slowed the war across many of the major frontlines of western Syria but not stopped it entirely.
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Kerry said the peace deal, worked out through weeks of negotiations, "has the ability to provide a turning point," should all sides honor a cessation of hostilities set to begin at sundown Monday.
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This latest strike comes despite a deal between world powers to attempt a nationwide "cessation of hostilities" in Syria, aiming to stop fighting everyone except the Islamic State (IS) and al Nusra Front.
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The cessation of hostilities drawn up by Washington and Moscow faced "complete nullification" because Syrian government attacks were violating the agreement, the official of the Saudi-backed opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian government accused Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Monday of trying to undermine a fragile cessation of hostilities agreement by saying there would be a "plan B" if it failed.
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Government officials pointed to an agreement signed by leaders of the Hema and Lendu communities in mid-March, which announced a cessation of hostilities, even though both communities insist they weren't at war.
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Kerry said the Syrian regime had "forced the surrender" of Daraya in contravention of the February cessation of hostilities agreement, but Lavrov said the local accord was an "example" that should be "replicated".
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Russia said at the time the strikes jeopardized a cessation of hostilities that Washington and Moscow had negotiated and that the Syrian regime resumed striking rebel areas soon after, with the accord eventually collapsing.
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" UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien also gave a strongly worded statement to the UN Security Council in late October urging an immediate cessation of hostilities to save a generation of Yemenis from "humanitarian catastrophe.
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They also talked about the need to reinforce a cessation of hostilities between Syrian government and opposition forces, and their support for a political transition in the war-torn country, the White House said.
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"France continues to be extremely concerned by the increasing and deliberate violations of the cessation of hostilities, for which the regime is mainly responsible, and the ongoing obstacles to provide humanitarian access," he said.
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The already widely violated "cessation of hostilities" agreement brokered by Russia and the United States has been strained to breaking point by an upsurge in fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels near Aleppo.
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Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for the First Coastal Division, an FSA group, said government forces had brought in reinforcements for the battle and that fighting was as intense as anything preceding the cessation of hostilities.
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A "task force" led by Russia and the United States is to delineate which parts of the country are held by the banned terrorist groups that are not part of the cessation of hostilities.
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He said it was taking advantage of a previously announced cessation of hostilities in many locations, and of the fact that its units are often deployed in the same areas as the moderate opposition.
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Neither Michael nor Mary has disclosed their affair to their spouse, but they seem to have reached a kind of tacit détente, a cessation of hostilities that implies both vaguely know what's going on.
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In February, a cessation of hostilities negotiated between Kerry and Lavrov fell apart within weeks, and efforts to reach a political settlement in the war-torn country have been on the verge of collapse.
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"Over the past 24 hours, terrorist groups breached the cessation of hostilities agreement in Syria 12 times in Damascus, Aleppo and Hama," the SANA report said, with half of the instances occurring in Damascus.
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They met in Munich and pushed for a ceasefire deal, resulting in an agreement on a "cessation of hostilities" that President Bashar al-Assad's government and the opposition have both said they could support.
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The comments came on the eve of a summit of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) in Munich on Thursday where major powers aimed at coming to an agreement on a cessation of hostilities.
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"I can't say categorically that a week from last Thursday there must be a cessation of hostilities, but certainly we're going to expect that there is progress," State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said.
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And U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at a briefing that Turkey, as a member of the International Syria Support Group, is expected to buy into and abide by the cessation of hostilities.
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The cessation of hostilities was holding -- proof, they said, that they could control the armed groups they claim to speak for while validating their claim to represent Syria's opposition and be at the talks.
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That is about as good a response as there can be to the question of when the "cessation of hostilities" in Syria, partial though it was, will be deemed to have broken down entirely.
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"The cessation of hostilities has been put to the test, and it has frayed in certain areas, and it has fallen completely in a few areas," Secretary of State John Kerry said in Geneva.
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Turkey has called for a cessation of hostilities for Idlib to remain under rebel control, to prevent further waves of refugees into Turkey and to give the rebels more leverage in a peace settlement.
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What was clear by nightfall was that the cease-fire's desired outcome — a complete cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of Kurdish troops from part of northern Syria — had not yet fully taken place.
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"Russia, as a co-sponsor of the cessation of hostilities, should use its influence on the regime to help stop these attacks," Power said, referring to a truce agreed in February that subsequently unraveled.
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The opposition accuses the government of violating the cessation of hostilities to capture Aleppo, Syria's most populous city before the war, which has been divided between government-controlled and rebel-held zones for years.
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Kerry said the talks with Lavrov had "achieved clarity on the path forward" but together they offered few details on how they planned to renew a February cessation of hostilities and improve humanitarian assistance.
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BEIRUT/ GENEVA (Reuters) - The Syrian opposition warned on Sunday that attacks by the army, backed by Russian warplanes, threatened a U.S.-Russian deal for a cessation of hostilities with collapse and endangered future peace talks.
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Meanwhile, Turkish artillery continued to shell Kurdish fighters in Syria for the fifth day in a row, despite appeals from Russia and the US calling for a cessation of hostilities towards the YPG in Syria.
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Kodmani said Russia had committed to applying the necessary pressure on the government of President Bashar al-Assad to comply with the cessation of hostilities, which would be nationwide and subject to more stringent monitoring.
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A statement from State Department spokesman John Kirby said the two had "discussed ongoing multilateral efforts to achieve a cessation of hostilities in Aleppo, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid" to civilians there.
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Ford said that Russia has been unable to get its "obstreperous client" Assad to make any political concessions, allow significant humanitarian assistance into numerous rebel-held enclaves or abide by a cessation of hostilities agreement.
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Progress so far Here's the good news: Few casualties have been reported in the last 48 hours in areas of Syria not controlled by ISIS (those areas are excluded from this cessation of hostilities plan).
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"Every time we have been having a meeting or a discussion about cessation of hostilities, or de-escalation in this case, there have been some incidents produced by one side or the other," he said.
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Daraya, situated close to a large air base and just a few miles from Assad's palace, had seen little violence since a broader cessation of hostilities agreement came into effect at the end of February.
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"I am gratified to see the final arrangements concluded today for a cessation of hostilities in Syria and call on all parties to accept and fully comply with its terms," Kerry said in a statement.
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Nic Robertson, CNN's International Diplomatic Editor, has been reporting from Munich, where top diplomats from major world powers on Friday agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria, after a brutal five-year civil war.
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"France and Germany call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and the implementation of a ceasefire to provide civilian support, humanitarian access and medical evacuation, as called for by the UN," the two governments said.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it was in discussions with Russia about trying to renew the cessation of hostilities in Syria following the deadly bombing this week of a hospital in Aleppo.
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"Our military presence will continue to be there, it will be directed mostly at making sure that the ceasefire, the cessation of hostilities, is maintained," he told reporters at the United Nations in New York.
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He said Damascus has been less responsive to requests for aid convoys than it was after world powers agreed in Munich in early February to a cessation of hostilities to allow aid to be delivered.
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ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's government is in talks with Islamist militant group Boko Haram about a possible ceasefire with the ultimate aim of securing a permanent cessation of hostilities, the country's information minister said on Sunday.
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"Rather, Russia and the Syrian regime have chosen to pursue a military course, inconsistent with the cessation of hostilities, as demonstrated by their intensified attacks against civilian areas," which American officials say have included hospitals.
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GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States on Monday rejected Russia's call for an urgent meeting over violations of Syria's three-week cessation of hostilities, saying that its concerns were already being handled in a constructive manner.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Early reports show some reduction of violence in Syria since a cessation of hostilities brokered by the United States and Russia came into effect on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.
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The difficulty of even a partial cessation of hostilities in Syria was underscored by the failure of the recent cease-fire negotiated by Russia and the United States, which took months to put into place.
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Aid workers and now political leaders are calling for a cessation of hostilities, as well as emergency measures to revive the battered economy of Yemen, where soaring food prices have pushed millions to the brink.
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"We are using our influence with the CoH [cessation of hostilities] parties on the ground to press them to abide by the CoH, refrain from disproportionate responses to provocations and demonstrate restraint," the statement said.
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"The cessation of hostilities and the Geneva talks were the only game in town, and if they are abandoned now, I dread to think how much more horror we will see in Syria," Zeid said.
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GENEVA (Reuters) - Russia has not violated the cessation of hostilities in Syria, and it has not had any complaints from its contacts in the Syrian opposition, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told Reuters on Tuesday.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moalem told U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura on Monday that terrorist groups were breaking a cessation of hostilities agreement on the orders of Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
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In a telephone news conference conducted by Save the Children, they also expressed concern that the one-week delay in the proposed cessation of hostilities would give all combatants more reason to escalate the fighting immediately.
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The ministry also said in a statement that it was counting on the United States to influence Syria's "moderate opposition" to ensure full compliance with the cessation of hostilities that began at 1600 GMT on Monday.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it was making progress with Russia on how to achieve a cessation of hostilities in Syria and held out the possibility a nationwide ceasefire need not begin immediately.
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The ministry, speaking hours before the cessation of hostilities was due to take effect in Syria, also said a joint U.S.-Russian coordination centre was being set up to determine Russian and U.S.-led coalition targets.
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The United States and Russia, who support rival sides in Syria's civil war, said on Monday they would work to revive a February "cessation of hostilities" agreement that managed to reduce fighting for almost two months.
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Under the plan being discussed by Kerry and Lavrov, a cessation of hostilities agreement would halt violence in areas where Syrian government forces and opposition fighters have been battling each other, opening up humanitarian aid corridors.
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Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a Houthi leader and member of its Supreme Revolutionary Committee, told Reuters the group had still not seen an official announcement about a cessation of hostilities and skirmishes continued in outer suburbs.
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The group and al Qaeda's Syrian branch the Nusra Front are excluded from a month-long cessation of hostilities that has brought a lull in fighting between the government and rebels battling Assad in western Syria.
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"The best possible thing that could happen is for the cessation of hostilities to really take root, and to be sustained, for the humanitarian assistance to flow and then for the negotiations to start," he said.
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"I confirm having received from (Ansar Dine leader) Iyad Ag Ghali the cessation of hostilities throughout the country," Mahmoud Dicko, president of the High Islamic Council, told Reuters, adding that he would soon brief Malian authorities.
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They added in their letter that its exclusion from the ceasefire would be used by Russia as a pretext to bomb other rebel groups, citing their experience of a failed cessation of hostilities earlier this year.
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis on Tuesday called for a cessation of hostilities in Yemen and urged the start of U.N.-led negotiations to end the civil war next month.
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Brennan's objective was "to emphasize with Russian officials the importance of Russia and the Assad regime following through on their agreements to implement the cessation of hostilities in Syria," the CIA said in an emailed statement.
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According to the Pentagon, coalition-backed fighters in Syria were attacked in al-Tanf even though they were part of the "cessation of hostilities," an agreement aimed at creating a truce in the war-torn country.
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The United States and Russia, which support rival sides in the civil war, said they would work to revive the February "cessation of hostilities" agreement that reduced fighting in parts of the country for several weeks.
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The U.N. said last week the warring parties had agreed to a cessation of hostilities from April 10 and peace talks from April 0003, after a year of war that has killed more than 6,200 people.
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"The Russian Federation and the United States will establish a communication hotline and, if necessary and appropriate, a working group to exchange relevant information after the cessation of hostilities has gone into effect," the statement said.
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"The Russian Federation and the United States will establish a communication hotline and, if necessary and appropriate, a working group to exchange relevant information after the cessation of hostilities has gone into effect," their statement said.
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The government is saying little about military operations in those areas, where rebel forces viewed as moderate by the West fight in close proximity to jihadists who are not included in the cessation of hostilities agreement.
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Lavrov and Cavusoglu agreed it was important for all parties concerned to fulfil the cessation of hostilities in Syria and resume the negotiation process, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website on Saturday.
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Kerry has said he hopes to strengthen a "cessation of hostilities" agreement between Syrian government forces and rebels, which has been undermined by fighting in some areas, and to increase humanitarian aid deliveries to besieged areas.
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GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called on Friday for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Syria's opposition-held Idlib province, saying the latest ceasefire attempt had yet again failed to protect civilians.
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Last month, 85033 State Department officials submitted a dissent cable on the Obama administration's policy, arguing for the use of limited military strikes if Assad continues to bomb civilians in violation of a cessation of hostilities.
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The cease-fire, started in December and known formally as a cessation of hostilities, is largely ignored in many parts of the country and excludes jihadist groups, including the Levant Conquest Front and the Islamic State.
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GENEVA (Reuters) - The "vast majority" of armed groups eligible to take part in a cessation of hostilities in Syria have signaled that they will do so, a source close to the peace talks said on Friday.
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Antony Blinken, deputy U.S. Secretary of State, said that major and regional powers were monitoring a fragile cessation of hostilities that went into force on Saturday to "prevent any escalation" but it was a "challenging process".
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GENEVA (Reuters) - Russia must use its influence on the Syrian government to stop attacks that threaten a seven-week cessation of hostilities as well as Geneva peace talks, a U.S. State Department official said on Monday.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The cessation of hostilities that went into force around Aleppo, Syria, on Wednesday has reduced the level of violence but has not been complete, which is the ultimate aim, the U.S. State Department said.
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After nearly a year of unrelenting carnage, the UN on Wednesday announced a "last chance" cessation of hostilities between Yemen's warring parties to start next month, and said it planned to convene peace talks shortly after.
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Just hours after an internationally-brokered "cessation of hostilities" took effect at midnight on Saturday in Syria, Islamic State (IS) fighters tried to recapture the Kurdish-controlled town of Tal Abyad near the border with Turkey.
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The U.N. Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, held talks with Syria's foreign minister on Tuesday aimed at securing a cessation of hostilities and said Damascus had a duty to let the world body bring in humanitarian aid.
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She needs the Syrian war, the main source of the refugee outflow, to end, but the latest American-Russian plan for a cessation of hostilities almost looks more likely to unravel in the weeks ahead than hold.
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MOSCOW, May 10 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the possibility of using the International Syria Support Group to strengthen Syria's cessation of hostilities, the Russian foreign ministry said.
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READ: Syria's cessation of hostilities, explained I went back to Aleppo again, at the end of February this year, so just a few months ago, and the Russian intervention had begun in September of the year before.
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Most of the country's front lines are quiet, thanks to the internationally-sponsored cessation of hostilities that remains in effect nationwide among all parties, except for the Islamic State group and the al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front.
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A spokesperson for the UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura welcomed the ceasefire, saying in a statement that a cessation of hostilities was a "cornerstone" of a UN Security Council resolution from 2015 on Syria.
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Russian and regime airstrikes against hospitals and schools in northern Syria drew sharp criticism by Washington and cast further doubt on the viability of the "cessation of hostilities" announced last week in Munich, scheduled to start Friday.
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Syria's cessation of hostilities explained CNN senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward traveled to rebel-held territory around Aleppo days ahead of the agreed break in fighting to witness the impact it had once it was implemented Friday.
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The United States and Russia failed on Friday to reach a breakthrough deal on military cooperation and a nationwide cessation of hostilities in Syria, saying they still have issues to resolve before an agreement could be announced.
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"It has specific modalities on how this cessation of hostilities will look as it's implemented on the ground, including monitoring and other aspects of how this thing will actually be implemented," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
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" And McCain continued the criticism Sunday, saying that the recent agreement on a cessation of hostilities would require "opposition groups to stop fighting, but ... allows Russia to continue bombing terrorists which it insists is everyone, even civilians.
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The US and Russia have agreed terms for a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria from February 27, in a move to stem the spiralling violence in a civil war into which several foreign powers have been drawn.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - A total of 135 people were killed in the first week of a fragile truce in Syria in areas covered by the cessation of hostilities agreement, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.
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"It is a question life and death ... we need a 30-day cessation of hostilities in Syria as the Security Council demands," Laerke, of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, told a Geneva briefing.
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MUNICH (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that an international meeting on the Syria crisis had agreed to implement a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria and to immediately expand delivery of humanitarian aid.
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On Wednesday the State Department reiterated its concern, saying Russia's use of the Iranian base "doesn't help" reach a cessation of hostilities in Syria and that U.S. lawyers were still assessing whether it violated the U.N. resolution.
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"The temporary declaration of ceasefire will take us to the final declaration of bilateral cessation of hostilities once and for all and conclusion of the conflict," the group said in a statement published by state-affiliated media.
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The U.S. State Department said while Washington backed the 48-hour Aleppo cease-fire it was focused on achieving a broader country-wide cessation of hostilities, which would be the focus of talks in Geneva on Friday.
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The cessation of hostilities agreement, drawn up by the United States and Russia, is seen by the U.N. as an opportunity to revive peace talks which collapsed before they had even started a month ago in Geneva.
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GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations will delay the next round of Syria peace talks by two days to allow the cessation of hostilities in force since Saturday to take hold, U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said.
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Russia's Defence Ministry said it would suspend air strikes in a "green zone" — defined as those parts of Syria held by groups that have accepted the cessation of hostilities — and make no flights at all on Saturday.
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"We believe that the cessation of hostilities will lead to a big leap forward in reaching many more people, hundreds of thousands of people in the hard-to-reach areas and the remaining besieged areas," he added.
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Ministers 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.
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Led by Canada, the United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to vote on a draft resolution that calls for a "cessation of hostilities" for an undefined period of time and that allows humanitarian aid to be delivered.
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"They talked about the importance of the continued multilateral discussions in Geneva and how ... to get a meaningful cessation of hostilities and the delivery of humanitarian aid," State Department spokesman John Kirby said of Kerry and Lavrov.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - All parties expected to take part in a cessation of hostilities in Syria have said they are ready to do so, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, warning the peace process would be difficult nonetheless.
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Both the government and a large number of rebel groups had pledged to respect the cessation of hostilities agreed in February with the aim of allowing a resumption of diplomacy towards ending the five-year-long war.
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Parliament speaker Ali Larijani called it a crime carried out by "cowardly terrorists" during a ceasefire - an apparent reference to a cessation of hostilities agreement to which the Nusra Front and other jihadist groups are not a party.
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Brigadier General Sharaf Luqman, a spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces allied with the Houthis, said the movement remained committed to a cessation of hostilities but was ready to "defend Yemen's independence in the event of continuing aggression".
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WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - A hotline set up by the U.S. State Department to log reported violations of the cessation of hostilities in Syria has suffered from a lack of fluent Arabic-speakers, the department said on Wednesday.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's coordination center in Syria has received from the United States a list of 69 armed opposition groups which agree with the terms of the cessation of hostilities in Syria, Interfax news agency reported on Sunday.
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Obama later confirmed that he had productive concentrations on what a real cessation of hostilities in Syria would look like and made clear that sanctions on Russia would remain until the the Minsk cease-fire agreement was implemented.
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Despite Assad's latest comments about "retaking all of Syria from the terrorists," the announcement from the Syria Arab Army of a cessation of hostilities for seven days is a clear indication of its acceptance of the Russian mediation.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian war planes will not carry out any air strikes in Syria on Saturday in order to support a nascent cessation of hostilities and to avoid accidentally bombing the wrong targets, the Russian defense ministry said.
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This week, the US and Russia announced a cessation of hostilities agreement, which the government, allied militias, and moderate rebels have until noon local time on Friday to agree to — 12 hours before the agreement would take effect.
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After five years of conflict that has killed over 250,000 and caused the world's worst refugee crisis, Washington and Moscow engineered a deal three weeks ago for a cessation of hostilities and crucial humanitarian aid to besieged regions.
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"While we are thinking of ways to move from a state of cessation of hostilities to a state of permanent ceasefire, Israel continues to make plans to build walls on reservation areas along the blue line," Hariri said.
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While the "cessation of hostilities" has fallen short of halting the five-year-long war across the country, parts of Syria have enjoyed an unusual period of peace since the U.S.-Russian agreement came into effect on Saturday.
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"During a brief discussion, the two ministers went over plans for the organization and essential tasks of the task force charged to develop modalities for a cessation of hostilities in Syria," U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
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Washington (CNN)Two days after world powers agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria, prospects for its success are already being met with skepticism as bombs pelted Damascus suburbs Friday and officials involved acknowledged the difficulties ahead.
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" The White House said in a statement that the call was made to discuss the recent agreement and "stress the importance of rapidly implementing humanitarian access to besieged areas of Syria and initiating a nationwide cessation of hostilities.
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World powers agreed Friday in Munich, Germany, to seek a nationwide "cessation of hostilities" in Syria to begin in a week's time, although it would not apply to the battle against terrorist groups ISIS and al Nusra Front.
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"There is still a chance to pull Yemen back from the brink," he said, adding that all parties to the conflict should recommit to a cessation of hostilities, including a complete halt to ground and air military activities.
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In Talbiseh, an insurgent-held town in Homs Province, a Russian helicopter crashed, killing two pilots, a day after aerial attacks by the government and its allies resumed there at their most intense since the cessation of hostilities.
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Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov, met briefly but there was no indication that a short-lived cessation of hostilities that ended early this week could be revived anytime soon.
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"These proposals would act as a confidence-building mechanism between the parties, with a view to a durable cessation of hostilities as a step towards the resumption of peace talks under U.N. leadership," the Security Council statement said.
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"On Yemen, the secretary reiterated the United States' calls for a cessation of hostilities and for all parties to come to the table to negotiate a peaceful solution to the conflict under the U.N. Special Envoy," she said.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday that while efforts were being made to track down alleged violations of the cessation of hostilities, there was currently no evidence to suggest they would destabilize the fragile peace.
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Taliban fighters headed into cities across Afghanistan over the weekend as they celebrated their Eid cessation of hostilities with feasts, hugs and selfies, raising questions about what happens when their ceasefire ends at midnight (0003 GMT) on Sunday.
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GENEVA (Reuters) - Syria's cessation of hostilities is holding but remains fragile after six days in which incidents have been contained in the provinces of Homs, Hama, Latakia and Damascus, U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday.
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But during remarks to reporters in Geneva, he stressed that the Russian offer fell well short of the cessation of hostilities he had proposed in an attempt to avert the destruction of rebel-held parts of the city.
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Security Council members Kuwait and Sweden have co-sponsored of a draft resolution calling for a 30-day cessation of hostilities to let aid convoys enter the enclave and deliver the first humanitarian supplies since late last year.
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The only curious aspect of Putin's agreeing to the cessation of hostilities was the timing; before the temporary setback in Khanaser, the campaign by government forces to retake the rest of Aleppo appeared to be headed toward victory.
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When asked by reporters to confirm Putin's visit to the French capital, Ayrault said: "The urgency today is the cessation of hostilities and to end the massacres in Aleppo," he told reporters after a news conference with Lavrov.
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"There continues to be such a breach of the cessation of hostilities, such a lack of humanitarian access, that it's very hard to see how the conditions can be arrived at for political talks to resume," he said.
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"If the remaining details can be completed, we believe we will be able to address the two primary challenges to the cessation of hostilities - the regime violations and the increasing influence of the al-Nusra Front," Kerry said.
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Turkey, a main supporter of the rebellion against Assad, on Friday accused him of being responsible for the deaths of 600,000 people in the conflict, which has raged since 2011, and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
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On Wednesday, the UN announced that the main parties to the war in Yemen had agreed to a cessation of hostilities to begin on April 10 at midnight, to be followed a week later by talks in Kuwait.
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FINSTADJORDET, Norway (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia of selectively enforcing a nationwide "cessation of hostilities" agreement in Syria while a government campaign to retake Aleppo continued unabated.
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Several senior administration officials told CNN earlier this week the administration was discussing possibly declaring the cessation of hostilities over and ending its cooperation with Russia if Moscow continued to violate the ceasefire and block the flow humanitarian aid.
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But then, as the talks went late into the night, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry emerged saying an agreement had been reached to work with Syrian parties to implement a "nationwide cessation of hostilities" in a week's time.
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Aid has yet to reach around 160,000 people in besieged locations in the eastern region of Ghouta, he acknowledged, but added that "all hopes are that the cessation of hostilities will make further access possible" in the week ahead.
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On Syria, the topic that occupied most of their conversation, Obama said that he and Putin have had "productive conversations" about negotiating a "real cessation of hostilities" in Syria but that "gaps of trust" have prevented reaching an agreement.
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Ministers at Thursday's talks wrangled over three core issues: a gradual cessation of hostilities with a firm end date, humanitarian access to cities besieged by both sides, and a commitment that Syrian parties return to Geneva for political negotiations.
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The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, welcomed the announcement, saying in a statement that it had provided "clear rules" for a cessation of hostilities and would allow warring sides to resume political talks on a transition.
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"Although the regime of cessation of hostilities envisaged by the Russian-US agreement is in its fourth day the question of whether the 'moderate opposition' is capable of complying with it in principle remains open," Konashenkov told reporters Friday.
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International divisions over Syria surfaced anew at a Munich conference where Russia rejected French charges that it was bombing civilians, just a day after world powers agreed on the "cessation of hostilities" due to begin in a week's time.
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Daraya, situated close to a large air base and just a few kilometers (miles) from President Bashar al-Assad's palace, had seen little violence since a broader cessation of hostilities agreement came into effect at the end of February.
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A senior State Department official said the United States was seeking to halt fighting in Latakia and eastern Ghouta near Damascus as a test case to trying to revive the cessation of hostilities throughout the country, including in Aleppo.
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An internationally brokered "cessation of hostilities" between the government and the rebels has slightly lowered the level of violence over the last month, but diplomats have failed to make much progress on a wider agreement to end the war.
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A fragile cessation of hostilities, drawn up jointly by the United States and Russia, has led to a dramatic reduction of violence in Syria over the weekend, though rebels are accusing the government of numerous violations including air strikes.
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Related: Syrian Fighters Say the Ceasefire Is Getting Shakier and Shakier The peace talks had brought about a major, but not complete halt in violence, after a cessation of hostilities was announced February 26 — but violence has since escalated.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian rebel group Jaish al-Islam said government forces dropped two barrel bombs and opened fire on its positions during several violations of a cessation of hostilities agreement in the Eastern Ghouta near Damascus on Saturday.
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Mr. Putin's decision to withdraw from the agreement was announced soon after an American decision to suspend negotiations with Russia for a new cessation of hostilities in Syria, where the Obama administration said Moscow had broken its previous commitments.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it was working to extend a cessation of hostilities agreement in Syria but called on Russia to first clarify a statement by the Syrian army that the truce was over.
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It comes days after Russia, along with China, defeated a resolution in the Security Council that would have imposed a seven-day cessation of hostilities to allow aid into besieged parts of Aleppo and allow residents to get out.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Russia agreed that the Syrian cessation of hostilities that began on Monday had largely held and should be extended for another 48 hours despite sporadic violence, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.
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GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States and Russia failed on Friday to reach a breakthrough deal on military cooperation and a nationwide cessation of hostilities in Syria, saying they still have issues to resolve before an agreement could be announced.
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Toner also said it is still the assessment of the United States and Russia that it is worth continuing the cessation of hostilities, although he acknowledged that humanitarian aid has yet to begin flowing as called for under the agreement.
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"So it is not over, even though the cessation of hostilities is largely holding in large parts of the country, there are tremendous dramas for the civilian population still, and we are denied access still in too many places," he said.
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AMMAN (Reuters) - Mainstream Syrian rebel groups said on Sunday they would no longer abide by a threadbare "cessation of hostilities" deal unless the Syrian army ended a major assault on their positions in the suburbs of Damascus within 48 hours.
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The rebel-held town of Daraya, located just a few kilometers (miles) from President Bashar al-Assad's Damascus palace, was also pounded for the first time since the broader "cessation of hostilities" accord that took effect at the end of February.
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Leaders made the call a week after major powers agreed a pause in combat in Syria, where Russia has focused on attacking rebels opposed to its ally President Bashar al-Assad, and urged that the "cessation of hostilities" be respected.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Insurgent groups attacked several Syrian government positions in Hama province on Thursday in what a rebel commander said was the biggest rebel assault in the area since a cessation of hostilities agreement came into effect two weeks ago.
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It also asked countries to curb the supply of weapons to warring parties, "particularly cluster munitions and incendiary weapons, which are indiscriminate when used in civilian-inhabited areas and pose a threat to civilians for years after the cessation of hostilities."
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Although billed as a potential breakthrough, the "cessation of hostilities" agreement does not take effect for a week, at a time when Assad's government is poised to win its biggest victory of the war with the backing of Russian air power.
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Speaking last week in Vienna, Austria, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that "no one can be remotely satisfied with the situation in Syria" but that Russia has "worked closely with the United States" on maintaining the cessation of hostilities.
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There was no immediate announcement of an extension of the truce, which was brokered by the United States and Russia with the aim of reviving a wider cessation of hostilities agreement that has broken down in much of western Syria.
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France, though, said it had information about fresh attacks on zones held by moderate rebels, and called for an immediate meeting of the Syria task force to address breaches of the cessation of hostilities that came into force on Friday.
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Mr. Kerry bristled at the suggestion that by agreeing to the cessation of hostilities in the next week he was acceding to Mr. Assad's recent territorial gains, or setting the stage for Mr. Assad to create a rump Syrian state.
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The ceasefire looks vulnerable with both sides accusing one another of not complying with their side of the bargain – such as a complete cessation of hostilities and local elections in separatist regions – which has led to a tense political stalemate.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian Kurdish YPG group said armed opposition groups in the Aleppo area had not respected a cessation of hostilities agreement, accusing them of attacking the mainly Kurdish Sheikh Maksoud district of Aleppo and other areas near the city.
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Several senior administration officials have told CNN in recent weeks the administration was discussing possibly declaring the cessation of hostilities over and ending its cooperation with Russia if Moscow continued to violate the ceasefire and block the flow of humanitarian aid.
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In a phone call with Lavrov on Wednesday, Kerry threatened to "suspend US-Russia bilateral engagement on Syria ... unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo and restore the cessation of hostilities," according to a State Department statement.
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The cessation of hostilities agreement, the first of its kind since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, is a less formal arrangement than a ceasefire and is meant to allow peace talks to resume and aid to reach besieged communities.
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The "cessation of hostilities" that went into effect the night of February 26 has been jointly monitored by UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura's office and by the ceasefire's international sponsors, known formally as the International Syria Support Group (ISSG).
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian rebel group Jaish al-Islam said on Friday government forces were mobilizing in an attempt to seize more opposition-held territory having already taken areas since a cessation of hostilities agreement came into effect on Saturday.
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U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed "welcomes the restoration of the cessation of hostilities, which will spare the Yemeni people further bloodshed and will allow for the expanded delivery of humanitarian assistance," the U.N. statement said late Monday.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia expects the U.N. Security Council to back a resolution endorsing the planned 'cessation of hostilities' in Syria, but nobody can give a 100 percent guarantee that the ceasefire plan will be implemented, Russia's foreign minister said on Friday.
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An eruption of fighting near the ancient city of Aleppo in the last two weeks marks the most serious challenge yet to a "cessation of hostilities" brokered by the United States and Russia with the aim of facilitating peace talks.
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It said President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed the move in a telephone call, saying it was in line with "the continuation of the cessation of hostilities and in accordance with the situation on the ground".
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Major powers agreed on Friday to a cessation of hostilities in Syria set to begin in a week and to provide rapid humanitarian access to besieged Syrian towns, but failed to secure a complete ceasefire or an end to Russian bombing.
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In February in Munich John Kerry, the American secretary of state, stood next to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and the UN envoy, Staffan de Mistura, to announce a countrywide cessation of hostilities in Syria's miserable five-year civil war.
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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The warring parties in Yemen have agreed to a cessation of hostilities starting at midnight on April 10 and peace talks in Kuwait beginning a week later, United Nations special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on Wednesday.
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AMMAN (Reuters) - Senior Syrian opposition negotiators on Sunday urged rebels to strike back against the Syrian army, accusing it of using a cessation of hostilities to gain ground, and cast doubt over whether they would continue Geneva peace talks indefinitely.
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U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the cessation of hostilities would begin at 2359 local time (2059 GMT) on Wednesday and could be renewed after the initial three-day period, the United Nations said in statement.
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Calling the escalation "EXTREMELY dangerous and reckless" in a Twitter post on Monday, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said the UN was working with Egypt to try to achieve a cessation of hostilities.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Guns mostly fell silent in Syria and Russian air raids stopped on Saturday, the first day of a cessation of hostilities that the United Nations has described as the best hope for peace in five years of civil war.
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PARIS (Reuters) - France and Britain called on the Syrian government and its Russian ally to immediately end attacks on Western-backed rebels, saying all sides had to fully implement a cessation of hostilities deal and allow unfettered access to besieged areas.
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There was no immediate announcement of an extension of the truce which was brokered by the United States and Russia with the aim of reviving a wider cessation of hostilities agreement that has broken down in much of western Syria.
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The opposition accuses the government of violating the cessation of hostilities agreement to launch a new offensive to capture Aleppo, Syria's most populous city before the war, which has been divided between government-controlled and rebel-held zones for years.
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"More than ever, there is an urgent need for a cessation of hostilities and unhindered access to humanitarian assistance," Ayrault said in a statement, adding he would meet with the head of Aleppo's district councils, Brita Hagi Hasan, on Wednesday in Paris.
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In his statement announcing the deal, Secretary of State John Kerry has called it both a "cessation of hostilities" and a "sustained reduction in violence" — which imply very different things about the level of violence that will be acceptable during the ceasefire.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Geneva meeting other dignitaries on Monday to try to revive the two-month-old U.S. and Russia-sponsored cessation of hostilities, which quieted guns for the first time during the five-year Syrian war.
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The U.N. special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told reporters in Geneva on Thursday that Syria's nationwide "cessation of hostilities" is under serious threat of collapse, and that a humanitarian disaster is unfolding as violence increases in Aleppo and three other locations.
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The talks have gone hand-in-hand with a cessation of hostilities which has lasted more than a month, raising the prospect of an end to a war that has killed more than 250,000 people and driven many Syrians from their homes.
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MOSCOW, May 3 (Reuters) - The U.N. special envoy on Syria, Staffan de Mistura said on Tuesday he wanted to focus on bringing a cessation of hostilities in Syria back on track at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.
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The agreement calls for the Syrian government and the opposition to indicate by noon on Friday whether they will comply with the cessation of hostilities, a term carefully chosen because it does not require the kind of agreement in a formal cease-fire.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels said on Wednesday they were under fierce government attack near the Turkish border despite a cessation of hostilities agreement and a representative cast doubt on whether U.N.-backed peace talks would go ahead on March 9 as planned.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov failed in all-day talks in Geneva last Friday to reach a breakthrough deal on military cooperation and a nationwide cessation of hostilities, saying they still had issues to resolve.
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Kerry and Lavrov said Friday that once the cessation of hostilities holds for seven days, their countries would begin working on military coordination in an effort to target one-time al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, previously known as al Nusra Front.
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In a joint statement after the meeting attended by the United States, European and Middle East powers that oppose Assad as well as Russia and Iran which support him, the powers called for a full cessation of hostilities and access for aid.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and the United States confirmed their commitment to a cessation of hostilities in Syria and said they would increase efforts to achieve a political resolution to the conflict there, according to a joint statement quoted by Russian news agencies.
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Major powers agreed on Friday to a cessation of hostilities in Syria set to begin in a week and to provide rapid humanitarian access to besieged Syrian towns, but failed to secure a complete cease-fire or an end to Russian bombing.
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Major powers agreed on Friday to begin a cessation of hostilities in Syria in a week, but Russia pressed on with bombing in support of its ally President Bashar al-Assad, who vowed to fight until he regained full control of the country.
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World powers agreed in Munich on Friday to a cessation of hostilities in Syria to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered, but the deal does not take effect until the end of this week and was not signed by any warring parties.
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The diplomat, speaking after a closed-door meeting of the cessation of hostilities task force in Geneva, said it was important for the United Nations to lead the effort to deliver aid to some 2 million civilians in the divided northern city.
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BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - At least 23 people were killed in Russian air strikes overnight in the rebel-held Syrian city of Idlib, the heaviest bombardment there since a cessation of hostilities was agreed in February, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
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Meanwhile, a main Syrian opposition group said it will respect the two-week truce that starts with the cessation of hostilities but it warned the government and Russia not to target it under a pretense of attacking internationally recognized terror groups like ISIS.
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ANKARA (Reuters) - The flow of Syrian refugees to Europe via Turkey will lessen if a cessation of hostilities in Syria holds, but breaches of the truce by Russian and Syrian forces have left it vulnerable, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday.
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The cessation of hostilities deal falls short of a formal ceasefire, since it was not signed by the warring parties - the government and rebels seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad in a five-year-old war that has killed 250,000 people.
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Islamic State and al Qaeda's Syrian branch the Nusra Front are excluded from a month-long cessation of hostilities in Syria that has brought a relative lull in fighting between the government and rebels battling Assad in the west of the country.
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Israel welcomed the cessation of hostilities in Syria in February but has indicated it could still launch attacks there if it sees a threat from Hezbollah, which holds sway over southern Lebanon and whose fighters have been allied with President Bashar al-Assad.
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Major powers agreed on Friday to a limited cessation of hostilities in Syria but the deal does not take effect until the end of this week and was not signed by any warring parties — the Damascus government and numerous rebel factions fighting it.
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BEIRUT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Syria's opposition indicated on Wednesday it was ready for a two-week truce in Syria, saying it was a chance to test the seriousness of the other side's commitment to a U.S.-Russian plan for a cessation of hostilities.
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Following the announcement of the deal, which involved a cessation of hostilities for five days to allow the Kurds to withdraw from the area, there have been reports of ongoing violence in the region that suggest the ceasefire has not been upheld.
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Mr. Obama welcomed the reduction in violence in Syria since the cease-fire began last month, but he emphasized "that continuing offensive actions by Syrian regime forces risk undermining" both the cessation of hostilities and a political resolution led by the United Nations.
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After repeatedly delaying the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2401, which demanded a 30-day cessation of hostilities across Syria, Russia has gone on to ignore its terms and to kill innocent civilians under the false auspices of counterterrorism operations.
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"A lot of the sticking points focus around Aleppo, around Nusra, around delineating between where Nusra is and the opposition is, and around ... the next steps and how we get to a nationwide cessation of hostilities," a senior State Department official told reporters.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia has committed not to launch strikes against Syrian groups the United States considers to be part of the moderate opposition, the U.S. State Department said on Friday, hours before a cessation of hostilities in Syria was due to start.
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For me the most powerful character is the disillusioned war hero Kenji, who lost a leg and must watch as doctors amputate higher and higher as the infection creeps up the stump, 'whose terrible wound paid no heed to the cessation of hostilities.
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Related: The UN Says a Syrian Regime Siege of Aleppo Would Be a Total Catastrophe Hours after international powers reached a deal to reportedly begin ending the fighting in Syria, humanitarian officials say the purported cessation of hostilities needs to happen immediately.
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The United States said on Friday that it was in discussions with Russia to renew the cessation of hostilities and was seeking a halt to fighting in Latakia and eastern Ghouta as a test case before trying to extend ceasefires throughout the country.
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LONDON (Reuters) - The 17-nation group backing Syria peace talks will meet next week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday, a day after he and his Russian counterpart agreed to work to revive a "cessation of hostilities" agreement reached in February.
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The decision followed a hopeful call from the Afghan president for a sustained cessation of hostilities and came as the Afghan government bickered over a prisoner-exchange provision in the conditional peace deal the Trump administration and the Taliban signed on Saturday.
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GENEVA (Reuters) - Syria's major opposition armed groups will issue a statement in the coming hours backing a cessation of hostilities from sundown on Monday, complying with a deal brokered by the United States and Russia, a source within the opposition told Reuters.
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"We're then able to immediately try to address them and to prevent them from reoccurring and thus to prevent any escalation that leads to the breakdown of the cessation of hostilities," Blinken said, after talks with U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura.
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A U.S.-Russian proposal for a limited "cessation of hostilities" from midnight on Saturday is intended to allow rapid and unhindered access for humanitarian agencies but it excludes Islamic State and Nusra Front fighters, and Syria's opposition has yet to back the deal.
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Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. envoy, made his upbeat comments on Tuesday after holding talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, saying he thought there was now a chance to relaunch the cessation of hostilities by reinforcing and extending local truces.
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Aleppo Fighting Fighting in neighboring Aleppo province, mainly around the Aleppo city, has become the biggest threat to the fragile cessation of hostilities, and has contributed to the decision by the main opposition delegation to suspend its formal participation in peace talks.
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" It also urged "all Member States, especially ISSG (International Syria Support Group) members, to use their influence with the parties to the cessation of hostilities to ensure fulfillment of those commitments and to support efforts to create conditions for a durable and lasting ceasefire.
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Syria's opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC), which groups Assad's political and armed opponents, said on Monday it accepted "international efforts for a cessation of hostilities", but only on the condition that previous demands including an end to blockades and the bombardment of civilians were fulfilled.
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MOSCOW, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The Russian Defence Ministry called on the Free Syrian Army to stop fighting Kurdish units to help support an impending cessation of hostilities on Monday and said it would continue air strikes against Islamic State and the former Nusra Front.
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The U.N. estimates there are almost 500,000 people living under siege, out of a total 4.6 million who are hard to reach with aid, but it hopes that a cessation of hostilities that began on Friday night will bring an end to the 15 sieges.
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Muslat, who is spokesman for the opposition's High Negotiating Committee (HNC), said it was waiting for answers about how the cessation of hostilities in Syria was being monitored, particularly since there was no map with a common understanding of the location of various fighting groups.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he spoke with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday and that their teams would meet soon to discuss plans for a planned "cessation of hostilities" due to go into effect in Syria this weekend.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday he hoped for more clarity in the next day or so on restoring a wider ceasefire, a reference to a February 27 "cessation of hostilities" agreement that has unravelled in recent weeks, particularly in Aleppo.
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While he declined to discuss specific details of the proposed partnership, State Department spokesman John Kirby on Thursday acknowledged the effort to coordinate more closely with Russia "We have been clear about Russia's obligations to ensure regime compliance with the cessation of hostilities," Kirby said.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to his Russian counterpart on Wednesday ahead of his upcoming trip to Moscow, a call expected to touch on the 5-year-old conflict in Syria and the cessation of hostilities there, the State Department said.
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The US wants a nation-wide cease-fire in Syria between the regime and the rebels in order to create the conditions for UN-led political talks to end the five-year war, rather than a time-limited cessation of hostilities in certain areas.
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The U.S. and Russian sponsored cessation of hostilities agreement, which has not been signed directly by the Syrian warring parties and is less binding than a formal ceasefire, is the first of its kind during a conflict that has killed more than 250,000 people.
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Major powers agreed in Munich on Friday to a cessation of hostilities in Syria, but the deal does not take effect until the end of this week and was not signed by any warring parties - the Damascus government and numerous rebel factions fighting it.
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Kerry, in Geneva for talks with other world leaders in an attempt to save the crumbling Syrian peace process, said it was incumbent on Russia and Iran to make sure the Syrian government lived up to its part in agreeing to a cessation of hostilities.
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"The good news is that our people on the ground confirmed that the cessation of hostilities is largely holding, the killing has been greatly reduced... Attacks on schools, attacks on hospitals have stopped," said Jan Egeland, the adviser to the special UN envoy to Syria.
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"Any party to the cessation of hostilities can pass on information on alleged violations to either of the co-chairs, directly or through the Office of the Special Envoy (OSE)/UN," said Jessy Chahine, spokesperson for Special Envoy de Mistura, in an e-mail.
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The United States and Russia agree on the value of extending the cessation of hostilities that began on Monday despite some continuing violence, Kirby said, but added that Kerry "expressed concerns about the repeated and unacceptable delays of humanitarian aid" during his conversation with Lavrov.
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And for that reason, the large opposition groups may find it hard to accept a cessation of hostilities that freezes the regime's recent gains and leaves the opposition with little justification or explanation for why they have sacrificed so much for such meager gain.
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VIENNA, May 17 (Reuters) - The United States and Russia will help explore who is responsible for ceasefire violations in Syria, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after big power talks in Vienna on Tuesday aiming to revive a February "cessation of hostilities" agreement.
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"We are working on all of the areas, it's not just about Latakia and eastern Ghouta, but also about Aleppo and other areas where we see problems or potential problems that we're trying to get this cessation of hostilities back on track," the official added.
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"With the cessation of hostilities largely holding, Russia's announcement that it will remove half of its forces immediately and more, perhaps, from Syria, and with the political negotiations convening this week in Geneva, we have reached a very important phase in this process," Kerry said.
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The cessation of hostilities agreed as part of a U.S. and Russian plan does not apply to the Islamic State group, which claimed the responsibility for the Salamiya attack, or the Nusra Front — an al Queda affiliate that has called for an escalation of attacks.
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"This violence will not halt the peaceful gatherings in Nangarhar and around the country celebrating a long overdue cessation of hostilities and a chance for lasting peace, or undermine the strength and resolve of the Afghan people and the international commitment to Afghanistan," he added.
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Secretary of State John Kerry hopes that this understanding with Russia will help lead to progress on other issues, including restoring the "cessation of hostilities," a partial truce that began in February and broke down in May, and returning to negotiations on a political transition.
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BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - A Syrian or Russian air strike was reported to have killed at least 19 people and possibly many more at a market in northwestern Syria on Monday, straining a cessation of hostilities agreement meant to pave the way for peace talks.
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The agreement aims for a cessation of hostilities to begin on Saturday, February 27 at midnight local time, but still requires armed actors, including the government of Bashar al-Assad and its allies, and an assortment of armed rebel groups, to get on board.
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The announcement comes after members of the ISSG — including the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran — announced on February 12 that an ISSG task force would "within one week elaborate modalities" for a nationwide cessation of hostilities, but that deadline passed with no deal.
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"The statement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling for a cessation of hostilities in Yemen is the most significant breakthrough in the war in Yemen for four years," said the IRC boss, who also happens to be a former British foreign secretary.
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Agha said the opposition delegation, including HNC head Hijab and chief negotiator Asaad al-Zoubi, would not call for a complete cessation of hostilities but would demand an end to "the indiscriminate shelling of markets, hospitals and schools by the regime and its Russian backers".
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"Both sides, the opposition and the regime, have contributed to this chaos, and we are working over the next hours intensely in order to try to restore the cessation of hostilities," Kerry told reporters in Geneva after talks with UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura.
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Last week the United Nations said the warring parties had agreed to a cessation of hostilities starting at midnight on April 10 and peace talks in Kuwait as part of a fresh push to end the crisis following two rounds of failed talks last year.
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The statement said Washington had emphasized the need to restore "compliance with the terms of the cessation of hostilities - particularly in Aleppo city - as well as the need to improve humanitarian access, as positive progress in these areas would significantly improve the prospects for successful talks".
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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Friday unanimously demanded that all parties to the civil war in Syria comply with the terms of a U.S.-Russian deal on a "cessation of hostilities" due to take effect at midnight local time (5.00 p.m. ET).
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Mogherini's visit coincided with high-level meetings in Moscow between Russian and U.S. officials, which de Mistura has said he hopes will give an impetus to the talks, just as they did by engineering a cessation of hostilities that came into effect almost three weeks ago.
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The decision to deepen military cooperation is surprising, given the Obama administration's public criticism of Russia's role in Syria as both a cessation of hostilities negotiated in February and efforts to reach a political settlement in the war-torn country are on the verge of collapse.
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This week a United Nations envoy said the warring parties had agreed to a cessation of hostilities starting at midnight on April 10 and peace talks in Kuwait as part of a fresh push to end the crisis following two rounds of failed talks last year.
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U.N. envoy: Syrian truce "hangs by a thread" Kerry: Cessation of hostilities put to the test U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the attack, telling reporters Monday in Geneva, Switzerland, that it was an "unconscionable act" for which he indicated he held the Syrian regime responsible.
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Kerry announces US-Russia deal on Syrian ceasefire In February, a cessation of hostilities negotiated between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov fell apart within weeks, and efforts to reach a political settlement in the war-torn country have been on the verge of collapse.
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"We hold the Russian government responsible for airstrikes in this airspace given their commitment under the cessation of hostilities was to ground air operations where humanitarian assistance was flowing," Rhodes said, referring to the terms of a recent ceasefire brokered between the United States and Russia.
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The cessation of hostilities deal agreed by major powers falls short of a formal ceasefire, since it was not signed by the warring parties - the government and rebels seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad in a five-year war that has killed at least 250,000 people.
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Four days into the American and Russian sponsored "cessation of hostilities" agreement that came into force on February 27th, Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy to Syria, said he was expecting the warring parties to return to the negotiating table in Geneva on March 9th.
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The war in Syria has already killed more than 250,000 people, and has unleashed the greatest tide of refugees since the end of World War II. True, the news that world powers have agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria offers the faintest glimmer of hope.
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Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told Putin in a phone call that the cessation of hostilities must hold to try to settle a conflict that has killed more than 250,000 people and created a refugee crisis.
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Just when our institutions of justice seemed to be enjoying a temporary cessation of hostilities from a White House seeking to defend itself from allegations of impropriety, the President unloaded a fresh salvo on Twitter -- his preferred method of communication -- and accused the FBI of criminal activity.
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"It's an opportunity for the president to, once again, make the case to President Putin that he should use his influence with the Assad regime to live up to the commitments that they've made in the context of the cessation of hostilities," Mr. Earnest told reporters.
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They gathered at a low point: A once-promising "cessation of hostilities" has largely collapsed, an effort to start negotiations between the opposition and the government broke down, and there has been no progress toward negotiating a "political transition" that was supposed to begin on Aug. 1.
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Meanwhile, despite a nominal cessation of hostilities, approximately 150,000 North Vietnamese regulars still occupied a large swathe of South Vietnamese territory — more or less the equivalent to agreeing to end World War II when there were still several German panzer tank divisions lurking in Belgium's Ardennes Forest.
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"Astana is the only place for the cessation of hostilities and Geneva is to see if there is any space for political discussion," Staffan de Mistura told delegates at the Munich Security Conference, referring to separate ceasefire talks in the Kazakh capital between Turkey, Russia and Iran.
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Related: Dozens of Iraqi Civilians Returning to Ramadi Are Getting Blown Up By Islamic State Mines The cessation of hostilities in Syria which began at the end of February and was sponsored by Russia and the United States to allow for peace talks, has since faltered.
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"UNIFIL continues to work with the parties to ensure that there are no misunderstandings or incidents that may endanger the cessation of hostilities," Tenenti told Lebanon's state news agency NNA, referring to a U.N. Security Council resolution that called for an end to the fighting in 2006.
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GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed on Tuesday on the need to urgently implement the cessation of hostilities agreement in Syria and for the warring parties to return to the table for political negotiations, a U.N. statement said.
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Terrorist groups not included The UN ceasefire resolution, which passed unanimously on Saturday, noted that the "cessation of hostilities shall not apply to military operations against the Islamic State," al Nusra and other groups associated with them, or groups deemed terrorist organizations by the UN Security Council.
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Related: The Regime Can't Be Trusted': Inside Syria's Aleppo as a Shaky Truce Begins The internally displaced person (IDP) camp lies about 20 miles west of Aleppo, where a cessation of hostilities brokered by Russia and the US had brought a measure of relief on Thursday.
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Sweden&aposs U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog, the current council president, had called the emergency consultations with Kuwait, the Arab representative on the council, hoping to get the 15 members to agree on a statement calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities and unrestricted access to deliver humanitarian aid.
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News that Western and Russian leaders had agreed to implement a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria in the days to come reminded a lot of people familiar with President Vladimir Putin's modus operandi of another peace deal Russia proposed in a country where it's also a major belligerent: Ukraine.
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A statement by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) signed by nearly 40 rebel groups that operate across Syria said they would deem the cessation of hostilities deal as having "totally collapsed" if the assault by Syrian government and allied Lebanese Hezbollah forces fighters did not cease within two days.
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Perhaps the only areas of Syria made safer — not safe but safer — for civilians during the course of the civil war have been those areas that experienced a dramatic drop in civilian casualties during the "cessation of hostilities" that held from late February until its collapse in April.
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Russia and America announced the partial cease-fire agreement on Monday, but diplomats, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the negotiations, said officials from both countries were still working on the complex task of delineating where the cessation of hostilities would apply.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Geneva for meetings with other dignitaries to try to revive the two-month-old U.S. and Russia-sponsored cessation of hostilities, which quieted guns for the first time during the five-year Syrian war but which has unraveled in recent days.
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In a meeting with U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura in London, Kerry said it was vital for Moscow to use its influence with the Assad regime to halt its attacks on opposition groups and innocent civilians, which he said were in violation of the cessation of hostilities.
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"He informed the foreign minister that the United States is making preparations to suspend U.S.-Russia bilateral engagement on Syria – including on the establishment of the Joint Implementation Center – unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo and restore the cessation of hostilities," Kirby said.
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"In the last weeks, the cessation of hostilities has been put to the test, and it has frayed in certain areas, and it has fallen completely in a few areas," Mr. Kerry said in Geneva after meeting with the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura.
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"We are pleading with the United States to back up its recent call for a cessation of hostilities with genuine diplomatic pressure, and to halt all military support for the Saudi/UAE coalition in Yemen in order to save millions of lives," the groups said in a joint statement.
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Mr. Ban also told reporters Wednesday that despite the Russian-American breakthrough on a temporary cessation of hostilities in Syria, the United Nations had been unable to send in long-awaited aid to besieged areas including Aleppo, the northern city that has been an epicenter of fighting recently.
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The UN Security Council passed a resolution Monday demanding a 30-day cessation of hostilities throughout Syria, and Russia announced that it was working with the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to establish a daily five-hour "humanitarian pause" for the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta.
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GENEVA/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The fate of President Bashar al-Assad will play no part in talks to end the Syrian war, the head of the government's delegation said, leading the U.N. peace envoy to warn that lack of progress on the issue could threaten a fragile cessation of hostilities.
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Related: Rebels Ignored the Islamic State in South Syria, and It's Come Back to Haunt Them The delivery of 26 pallets loaded with 20 tons of food came as one opposition official warned that a cessation of hostilities in Syria's civil war was on the verge of collapse.
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"It is a question life and death - if ever there was a question of life and death - we need a 30-day cessation of hostilities in Syria as the Security Council demands," Jens Laerke, spokesman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), told a Geneva briefing.
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"There are incidents, we know about them, we are informed, and we are trying and hoping that the two guarantors, and we trust they will, succeed in overcoming them so that they reach the point in which the cessation of hostilities will be recognized and working this time," he said.
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According to recent arrivals into Jordan, the population in the berm zone leapt during two periods: the height of the Russian air campaign, when the Syrian city of Homs in particular was under heavy attack, and the cessation of hostilities agreed last February, when people felt it was safer to move.
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Syrian government air strikes in rebel-held areas north of the city of Homs have taken place over the last few days coupled with a surge in fighting in Aleppo that was already starting to challenge a fragile cessation of hostilities deal agreed in February between the United States and Russia.
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Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov concentrated on the technicalities of securing a cessation of hostilities, relegating the task of restarting a political process to the UN. Without a negotiated settlement, though, any halt to the violence will be at best a temporary lull while the parties prepare for another round.
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Sources: Saudi prince 'threw fit' over resolution But multiple sources told CNN that a much-anticipated UN Security Council resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities to allow humanitarian aid to reach millions of starving people was "stalled" after Hunt's face-to-face meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
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"We are pleading with the United States to back up its recent call for a cessation of hostilities with genuine diplomatic pressure, and to halt all military support for the Saudi/UAE coalition in Yemen in order to save millions of lives," the groups said in a joint statement Monday.
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Late on Monday afternoon, Russia's envoy to the United Nations, Vitaly I. Churkin, said Russia's offer was "unilateral" and that a longer cessation of hostilities — even one for 48 hours — was only possible when Russia's principal demand is met: the separation of the Nusra fighters from the other rebel groups.
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In the memo, the State Department officials wrote that the Assad government's continuing violations of the partial cease-fire, known as a cessation of hostilities, will doom efforts to broker a political settlement because Mr. Assad will feel no pressure to negotiate with the moderate opposition or other factions fighting him.
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On Thursday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey outfoxed Vice President Mike Pence, who flew to Ankara to give Mr. Erdogan almost everything he wanted: a cessation of hostilities in the northeast (the Americans called it a cease-fire, the Turks a pause) and a Kurdish withdrawal from the area.
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"At the end of the day the best possible thing that could happen is for the cessation of hostilities to really take root, and to be sustained, for the humanitarian assistance to flow and then for the negotiations to start that lead to a political transition," Blinken told a news conference.
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The proposed cessation of hostilities does not include the Islamic State, which controls much of the country's northeast or the Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, but the confusing mosaic of battle lines between the many pro-government and rebel groups heightens the risk of clashes that are perceived as violations of the truce.
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As a prelude to the establishment of the JIG, there would be a renewed commitment by all sides to revive the "cessation of hostilities" pact that was announced in February, but which has since frayed to irrelevance, and to resume the passage of UN-sponsored humanitarian aid to the most hard-pressed areas.
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But despite a more than two-week-old "cessation of hostilities" and Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to pull out some of his country's forces that have tipped the balance of the war in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's favor, any hopes of a breakthrough at the peace talks in Geneva remain slim.
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Related: Russia Is Killing a Lot of Civilians in Syria — But the US Coalition Allegedly Is Too "We have reached a provisional agreement in principle on the terms of a cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days," Kerry told a news conference in Amman with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.
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MUNICH — Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, announced that they had agreed on the delivery over the next few days of desperately needed aid to besieged Syrian cities, to be followed by a "cessation of hostilities" within a week on the way to a more formal cease-fire.
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Peace talks in Geneva aimed to end a war that has created the world's worst refugee crisis, allowed for the rise of Islamic State and drew in regional and major powers, but the negotiations have all but failed and a cessation of hostilities agreement to allow them to take place has all but collapsed.
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"Firstly, in the run-up to this cessation of hostilities there was a dramatic increase in the intensiveness ... of Russian aerial bombardment and also of the regime warplanes of Bashar al-Assad," she said, adding she had witnessed a Russian airstrike on a market that killed at least eight people days before the truce.
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Mr. Kerry told Mr. Lavrov, "The United States is making preparations to suspend U.S.-Russia bilateral engagement on Syria, including on the establishment of the Joint Implementation Center, unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo and restore the cessation of hostilities," John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, said in a statement.
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"After repeatedly delaying the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 85033, which demanded a 30-day cessation of hostilities across Syria, Russia has gone on to ignore its terms and to kill innocent civilians under the false auspices of counterterrorism operations," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in the statement.
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Editorial After five months of suffering and destruction under unrelenting attacks by Russian aircraft, the Syrian people have at last received some good news: an agreement announced early Friday morning in Munich between the United States and Russia to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian cities, followed by at least a temporary cessation of hostilities.
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The resolution said absent a cessation of hostilities by June 30, the council would consider freezing the assets and banning travel for six officials, including Defense Minister Kuol Manyang Juuk, former army chief Paul Malong, Minister of Information Michael Lueth, and deputy chief of defense for logistics in the South Sudan Army Malek Reuben Riak Rengu.
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Washington (CNN)Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that the U.S. and Russia had agreed to cooperate in Syria against the al Nusra Front, al Qaeda's Syrian branch, in an effort to "restore the cessation of hostilities, significantly reduce the violence and help create the space for a genuine and credible political transition" in Syria.
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The supposed breakup comes less than two weeks after Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States and Russia had agreed to cooperate in Syria against al Nusra in an effort to "restore the cessation of hostilities, significantly reduce the violence and help create the space for a genuine and credible political transition" in the war-ravaged country.
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"I'm not confident that we can trust the Russians and Vladimir Putin, which is why we have to test whether or not we can get an actual cessation of hostilities that includes an end to the kind of aerial bombing and civilian death and destruction that we've seen carried out by the Assad regime," he said.
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"What we don't want is a situation where even though the general level of violence is down in a palpable way, something happens in a critical or strategic location and it kind of shakes the confidence or the willingness of some of the armed groups to continue to participate in the cessation of hostilities," the official said.
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"In Daraya there has been fighting, but we had a very clear impression that we will not be having any problems in delivering if we get the two sides to agree to the cessation of hostilities so that we can deliver to the few thousand people there, civilians who are in a very, very difficult position," Egeland said.
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Related: In Photos: The Grim Aftermath of Twin Car Bomb Blasts in the Syrian City of Homs Meanwhile US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday he and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, had reached a provisional agreement on terms of a cessation of hostilities in Syria and the sides were closer to a ceasefire than ever before.
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Plans for the world power-brokered cessation of hostilities in Syria next week appear to be on shaky ground, amid little indication that rebel groups plan to adhere to it, low confidence from the international community, Saudi Arabia preparing to put boots on the ground, and no suggestion that Syrian president Bashar al Assad is willing to step down.
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Diplomacy often needs to be backed by a coercive element, and the military strike may give the Russians the incentive they have lacked to implement the principles they backed in United Nations Security Council Resolutions 2254 and 2268: a cessation of hostilities, an end to sieges, unencumbered access for humanitarian assistance and an 18-month period for political transition.
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While the United States could increase its military support for Saudi Arabia, leveraging U.S. airpower, special operations, and intelligence capabilities to force the Houthis to agree to a ceasefire, this would likely produce only a temporary cessation of hostilities or give AQAP and ISIS time to build their strength unchallenged while continuing their attacks and destabilization efforts.
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The United Nations, trying to build on a lull in fighting along the Saudi-Yemeni border, said this week that the warring parties had agreed to a cessation of hostilities starting at midnight on April 10 followed by peace talks in Kuwait from April 18 as part of a fresh push to end the crisis following two rounds of failed talks last year.
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The Syrian army stopped extending the cessation of hostilities this month after accusing rebels of violating the agreement by firing at government-controlled residential areas A senior official in the rebel group Fastaqim that operates in the Aleppo area said there was heavy Russian bombing of rebel areas on the strategic route all day, developments the Syrian Observatory confirmed later.
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The best that can be said of the provisional agreement on a "cessation of hostilities" between at least some of the warring parties in Syria, hammered out (again) on February 22nd between John Kerry, America's secretary of state, and Sergei Lavrov, his Russian opposite number, is that it appears to have slightly more solid foundations than a similar attempt earlier this month.
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"We call on the Assad regime to, at least in a moment of cessation of hostilities, try to show some measure of decency, if that is even possible," Kerry said Monday during a news conference in Washington with his German counterpart, echoing U.N. hopes that aid can reach another 150,000 people this week and 1.7 million by the end of March.
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Washington (CNN)Multiple sources tell CNN that a much-anticipated United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities in Yemen and for Saudi Arabia to allow humanitarian aid to reach millions of starving people was "stalled" this week after the resolution's sponsor, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, met face-to-face with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
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"I am gratified to see the final arrangements concluded today for a cessation of hostilities in Syria and call on all parties to accept and fully comply with its terms," Secretary of State John KerryJohn Forbes KerryTrump's winning weapon: Time The Memo: O'Rourke looks to hit reset button #FreeAustinTice trending on anniversary of kidnapping in Syria MORE said in a statement.
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In a statement issued earlier this week, the a spokesman for the United Nations secretary-general estimated that at least 30,000 civilians had been displaced by the offensive in the past week alone, and called for "an immediate cessation of hostilities" in the province while demanding "sustained, unimpeded and safe humanitarian access to civilians, including through the cross-border modality" for those fleeing.
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Related: The US and Russia Just Brokered a Ceasefire in Syria — But No Syrians Have Signed on Yet Under the terms brokered on Monday, the Syrian government and opposition had until noon on Friday to agree to a cessation of hostilities, which does not apply to the "terrorist organizations" operating in Syria — specifically IS and the Nusra Front and groups allied with them.
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Under that agreement, a cessation of hostilities was slated to begin on Monday, unfettered humanitarian aid was to flow to Syria and, if both of those conditions were met for seven days, the United States and Russia were to set up a joint committee to coordinate strikes against the Islamic State and the Nusra Front militant groups, both of which are excluded from the ceasefire.
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"If the regime and its allies break the cessation of hostilities, the United States will need to act more aggressively to empower acceptable elements of the Syrian opposition and develop credible threats of limited military force to deter Assad regime and Russian bombing of civilians in areas controlled by acceptable American supported opposition groups," wrote Goldenberg and co-author Nicholas Heras, a Bacevich fellow at CNAS.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to his Russian counterpart on Monday to review efforts to stop the violence that has broken out along the Nagorno-Karabakh line of conflict and how to get Armenia and Azerbaijan to resume talks, the State Department said Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also discussed the cessation of hostilities in Syria, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
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"We believe that achieving our objectives will continue to elude us if we do not include the use of military force as an option to enforce the Cessation of Hostilities (CoH) and compel the Syrian regime to abide by its terms as well as to negotiate a political solution in good faith," said a draft of the memo posted online by The New York Times.
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Despite the Secretary's efforts to deescalate the violence and forge ahead with the political track, we believe that achieving our objectives will continue to elude us if we do not include the use of military force as an option to enforce the Cessation of Hostilities (CoH) and compel the Syrian regime to abide by its terms as well as to negotiate a political solution in good faith.
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"We both believe that we have an understanding of the direction we are going in and what needs to be achieved and our teams will meet shortly and we are going to continue to do that in order to bolster the cessation of hostilities and in order to increase our capacity to fight back against al Qaeda, which is Nusra, as well as fight back against ISIL," Kerry said.
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What's the difference between a ceasefire and a "cessation of hostilities" The rebel High Negotiations Committee said Friday that 97 factions agreed to abide by the deal, but it warned the Syrian regime and one of its major foreign supporters, Russia, not to attack the factions under a pretense of targeting internationally recognized terror groups in the region, such as ISIS and the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front.
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