Nationwide Cease-Fire to Begin at Midnight

A nationwide cease-fire agreement backed by Russia and Turkey will take place from midnight Thursday local time, BBC News reported.

Russian president Vladimir Putin announced the cease-fire between government and opposition forces, confirmed by the Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who added that all foreign fighters now needed to leave Syria, Reuters reported.

“Russia and Turkey are guarantors in the agreement being worked on in Ankara. There is nothing final on whether Iran will sign it as a guarantor … All foreign fighters need to leave Syria. Hezbollah needs to return to Lebanon,” Cavusoglu said.

The Syrian military said ISIS and the former al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat Fatah al-Sham are excluded from the agreement, as are any groups affiliated with them. It did not specify who those affiliates were.

The High Negotiations Committee, the rebel umbrella group, confirmed the deal, saying it was “not possible to continue” the fight. Rebels committing to the cease-fire include hardline Islamist factions such as Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam, according to the Russian defense ministry.

The nationwide cease-fire will be followed by peace talks between the Syrian government and rebels in the Kazakh capital of Astana, said Putin, who called on all countries involved in nearly six-year war to support the peace talks, Al Jazeera reported.

“Now we need to do everything for these agreements to work, so that negotiators would come to Astana and would begin to work on real peace process. I call on the Syrian government, armed opposition, all countries involved to support these agreements,” said Putin.

The U.S. administration will be invited to participate in the talks after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, said Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, according to ABC News.

10 Children Killed in Airstrikes on Deir Ezzor, Says SOHR

Some 22 civilians were killed in airstrikes on the town of Hajana on Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported.

Located in the northeastern province of Deir Ezzor, the town is under the control of ISIS. At least 10 children were killed in the airstrikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The U.K.-based monitor could not immediately confirm who carried out the air raids, but said it was likely to have been either the Syrian or Russian air forces.

Syrian Kurdish Groups Approve Federal System Blueprint

Syrian Kurdish groups on Thursday approved a blueprint for a federal government system in Syria, Reuters reported.

Kurdish leaders have said they do not want an independent state, but an autonomous region. The blueprint seeks to reaffirm Kurdish control of areas they have self-governed throughout the six-year conflict, amounting to a constitution.

“The executive committee will prepare for elections,” Mansour al-Salloum, joint head of the founding council of the federal system, told Reuters. Elections will initially take place for regional powers, and later for a central administration.

Local populations will decide whether they want to be a part of the federal system in areas that are not already under control of Kurdish or allied forces, Salloum said. This includes Raqqa, the embattled northeastern province that fell under control of ISIS in January 2014. An array of different forces are currently fighting ISIS militants there, including the Kurdish YPG and its U.S.-backed allies, the Syrian army and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels.

It is not clear whether the YPG is party to the nationwide cease-fire announced by Russia and Turkey today. Turkey views Kurdish militias in Syria as an extension to its own Kurdish insurgency, and has targeted Kurdish forces in Syria.

RECOMMENDED READS

• The Washington Post: On the Road to Raqqa
• Al-Jumhuriya: Fighting on All Fronts: Women’s Resistance in Syria
• The Wall Street Journal: Russia Seeks Backing for New Talks on Syria
• The New Inquiry: Syria and the Left: A Call to Arms
• The New York Times: Syrian Government Announces Truce Backed by Russia and Turkey