Baladi News Abed al-Aziz Khalefa
The United States, Russia and Jordan reached a cease-fire and "de-escalation" agreements in southwestern Syria on Friday and the cease-fire is scheduled to begin on Sunday.
Although the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson emphasized at a news conference following Donald Trump's meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin the importance of cooperation between his country and Russia in Syria, he stressed the US position that sees no role for the Assad family in Syria's future.
The US Secretary of State said that the area covered by the ceasefire affects Jordan's security and is "a very complex part of the Syrian battlefield." "I think what has been achieved today is our first indication that the United States and Russia are able to work together in Syria," he added.
"We can continue to work together to calm and defuse the violence once we defeat the state organization and work together to find a political process that will secure the future of the Syrian people," he said.
He stressed that the US position is that the United States does not see a "long-term role for the Assad family or its regime." "We have made it clear to everyone, as we have clearly demonstrated in our discussions with Russia, that we do not believe that Syria can achieve international recognition in the future. Even if they worked through a successful political process, the international community simply will not accept Syria led by the Assad regime. "
The United States believes that "it will be difficult for Syria to attract humanitarian aid, as well as reconstruction assistance that will be required, because of the low level of confidence in the Assad government."
"How Assad will depart has not yet been decided, but our view is that at some point in the political process there will be a shift away from the Assad family," he said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that experts from Russia, the United States and Jordan had agreed in Amman on a memorandum of understanding on the truce in southern Syria, pointing out that the Russian military police will oversee the ceasefire in cooperation with the American and Jordanian sides.
On the other hand, the delegation of the Syrian armed opposition to Astana expressed concern about what it called secret and understandings among Russia, the United States and Jordan to settle a separate agreement in the south of Syria in isolation from the north.
The delegation described in a statement these understandings as being unprecedented, and that they would divide Syria and the opposition into two parts, adding that such agreements consolidate the Iranian presence along the buffer zone adjacent to the Syrian borders with Palestine and accept opening a crossing for the regime with Jordan in Swaida province. It also said that what it described as the barbaric shelling of the city of Daraa had not stopped until the Turkish government intervened.
The agreement covers three provinces: Suweida, Daraa and Quneitra, as well as the occupied territories in the Syrian Golan. The parties to it include the regime forces supported by Iranian militias and Hezbollah on the one hand and the rebel factions fighting under the banner of the southern front that boycotted the Astana conference on the other. The agreement took place one day after the announcement of the regime forces of a second, consecutive, and one-sided truce in the same area that witnessed some violations including bombing residential areas in the city of Daraa and its countryside by the regime forces.