Russia, Turkey Agree on Nationwide Syrian Ceasefire Plan

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Russia and Turkey reached an agreement on a plan that would involve a ceasefire between the Syrian governmental forces and the opposition armed groups on a nationwide scale, Turkey's foreign minister said.

The minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said that the two countries have come to an agreement on the ceasefire issue and even prepared a text of the truce accord to be presented to the warring parties.

"There are two texts ready on a solution in Syria. One is about a political resolution and the other is about a ceasefire. They can be implemented any time," Cavusoglu told reporters on the sidelines of an awards ceremony at the presidential palace in Ankara, as cited by Reuters.

For his part, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the agreement reportedly reached by Moscow and Ankara. "I cannot answer this question now, I do not have sufficient information right now," he said, in reply to a question about the agreement, as cited by TASS.

However, he confirmed that Russia and Turkey are engaged in a "constant" discussion in Astana of the possibilities of talks between the various sides in the Syrian conflict.

The agreement does not include terrorist organizations such as Al-Nusra Front and Daesh [ISIS/ISIL], which would not be part of the deal, Anadolu said. A source close to the Russian Foreign Ministry told Gazeta.ru that Kurdish militia units known as YPG are also excluded from the ceasefire.

If the ceasefire is successfully implemented and upheld, negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition will start in the Kazakh capital, Astana, in early 2017, the news agency added.

The talks would not include the United States and are expected to be separate from the UN-brokered negotiations that were held in Geneva several times but failed to bring any significant results.

Meanwhile, a representative of one of the opposition factions told Reuters that no agreement on a ceasefire had been reached with the opposition yet. "The details of the ceasefire deal have yet to be officially presented to the factions," he said.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura welcomed the efforts by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran to establish a nationwide ceasefire in Syria and launch a meaningful political dialogue between various sides of the Syrian conflict, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Russia, Iran and Turkey said last week they were ready to help broker a peace deal after holding talks in Moscow, where they adopted a declaration setting out the principles any agreement should adhere to.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team