Syria cease-fire: ‘Children are even playing in the street’

By Erin Cunningham and Heba Habib

The Washington Post

ISTANBUL — A cease-fire in Syria brokered by the United States and Russia appeared to be holding on Tuesday, residents and activists said, bringing a rare period of calm and raising hopes that food and other aid would eventually reach hundreds of thousands of besieged Syrians.

The nationwide truce, which went into effect at sundown Monday, is the second major attempt by world powers to halt – or at least curb – the fighting that has killed nearly half a million people, decimated cities and infrastructure, and spawned a humanitarian crisis stretching from the Middle East to Europe.

It’s part of a broader deal between Washington and Moscow to eventually launch joint strikes on militants in Syria, and pave the way for a possible negotiated settlement to the five-year-old conflict that has had Russian and American forces on opposing sides.

But it remains an open question whether the deal can keep violence in check.

Rebel groups have criticized the agreement for not imposing direct penalties for violations, and claim it could give Assad’s military a chance to try to expand its grip.

Mistrust between Washington and Moscow could also undermine the deal, said Cliff Kupchan, chairman of New York-based Eurasia Group, a political risk assessment firm.

“There’s plenty to be skeptical about,” said Kupchan. “And the chance that relief lasts more than a few months, at most, is low.”

Still, residents of rebel-held parts of Aleppo, a city devastated by the fighting, said their neighborhoods were quiet Tuesday. It was a welcome respite after months of Russian and Syrian airstrikes.

Opposition areas in Aleppo have been “de facto under siege,” with 275,000 residents almost “entirely cut off from vital supplies” like food, water and electricity, the United Nations said.

But on Tuesday, Aleppo residents breathed a sigh of relief – even if just temporarily.

“People are going about their business, and children are even playing in the street,” said Mohamed Omar, a civil defense volunteer in the rebel-held part of the city. “A Russian warplane is above us right now, but it is not signaling that it will drop anything. We are praying that it won’t strike.”

In Geneva, the United Nations humanitarian aid coordinator said on Tuesday that no deliveries had been made since the cease-fire went into effect, despite the agency’s own assessment that more than 13 million people in Syria are in need of some sort of aid.

Spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters that the United Nations needs to make sure its staff and partners “are not in mortal danger” before starting aid convoys, the Associated Press reported.

“Peace needs to be reinstated before we can go in,” Laerke said, according to the AP.

The cease-fire agreement calls for the demilitarization of Castello Road, a critical route to bring humanitarian supplies to Aleppo and to other besieged civilians.

Mohib Abdelsalam, a 26-year-old emergency responder and member of the Aleppo Revolutionaries rebel group, said residents had hoped that aid would arrive Tuesday.

“We are trying to remain hopeful,” Abdelsalam said. “We need petrol and food, fresh produce. We have been depending mostly on vegetables that we grow ourselves. We are currently just trying to survive the day.”

In Kafranbel in Idlib province, also in the north, Abu Muhammad said residents there are relieved that there have been no airstrikes. But locals don’t believe the truce will last.

“We haven’t heard any planes in the sky, and we haven’t documented any [cease-fire] violations in our area,” said Muhammad, an activist and lawyer. But people “are skeptical about whether it is going to work.”

Secretary of State John Kerry, who helped broker the accord with Russia, hailed the deal announced in Geneva on Saturday as “a last chance … to save a united Syria.”

According to the timetable laid out by Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the next seven days are crucial. If the cease-fire holds and humanitarian aid flows unimpeded to besieged areas, then the two sides will start working out plans to conduct joint military operations against the Islamic State and former al-Qaida affiliate, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, or Front for the Conquest of Syria.

A number of rebel groups have been fighting side by side with Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, raising concerns among opposition members that other factions will be targeted as well.