Syria diplomats work to ‘cease hostilities’

Diplomats have agreed to work toward a temporary “cessation of hostilities” in Syria’s civil war within a week, although efforts to secure a lasting ceasefire fell short.

The deal appeared to be the result of a compromise between the US, which had wanted an immediate ceasefire, and Russia, which had proposed one to start on March 1.

Although foreign ministers from the International Syria Support Group managed to seal an agreement to “accelerate and expand” deliveries of humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian communities beginning soon, their failure to agree on a ceasefire leaves the most critical step to resuming peace talks unresolved.

It was not clear from their comments afterward if deep differences regarding the truce and which groups would be eligible for it could be overcome.

US secretary of state John Kerry, however, defended the agreement as what the Syrian opposition wanted.

“They wanted it called and defined as a cessation of hostilities. That is very much in line with their thinking and their hopes,” he said.

Speaking for the group, Mr Kerry praised the results as a significant accomplishment but noted that a cessation-of-hostilities agreement, if it can be achieved, would only be a “pause” in fighting and that more work would need to be done to turn it into a fully-fledged ceasefire. He also allowed that the agreements made were “commitments on paper” only.

“The real test is whether or not all the parties honour those commitments and implement them,” he told reporters after the nearly six-hour meeting at a Munich hotel.

Dramatising the high-stakes nature of the Munich talks, Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev argued that a full-scale ground operation in Syria could widen the conflict.

“A ground operation draws everyone taking part in it into a war,” Mr Medvedev was quoted in an interview published by German newspaper Handelsblatt.

Meanwhile, humanitarian access to the battle-scarred country was to be discussed by a working group in Geneva. It is key to relieving the suffering of millions of Syrians in the short term, a durable and lasting ceasefire will be required if stalled negotiations between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government and the opposition are to resume on or before a UN-set target date of February 25.

The talks broke down last month before they really started, due largely to gains by Assad’s military with the heavy backing of Russian airstrikes.

Russia had proposed the March 1 ceasefire date, which the US and others saw as a ploy to give Moscow and the Syrian army three more weeks to try to crush Western- and Arab-backed rebels