14 May, 2017
The new deal was penned by Turkey, which mainly backs Syrian rebels, as well as Russian Federation and Iran, which both support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It also said it did not accept Iran as a guarantor of the deal. Rebels rejected the deal and said they would not recognise Iran as a guarantor of any ceasefire plan.
The agreement also allows for the creation of the correct conditions for humanitarian access, medical assistance and for the return of displaced civilians to their homes.
The Foreign Ministry said regime forces would continue fighting terrorists from ISIS and al Qaeda's former affiliate in Syria, al Nusra Front, according to a statement carried by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency. The United States is not party to the Astana agreement and the Syrian rebels have not signed on to the deal.
The agreement to create de-escalation zones in Syria came into force today.
Russian Federation remains Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most powerful ally while Turkey has backed the opposition in the conflict.
More importantly, there has been no unified response from the fractured rebel factions, including some who were not invited to the talks.
"We do not at all agree that Iran... is a guarantor of this accord", said rebel spokesman Osama Abu Zeid yesterday.
Lavrentyev said Turkey, Iran and Russian Federation have agreed on the possibility of allowing global observers in case there is "unanimity" on that issue.
The Iranian government has yet to issue a formal statement. A cease-fire is unsustainable in the presence of the Iranian-backed militias in Syria, he said.
Mohammed Rasheed, a spokesman for the Jaish al-Nasr rebel group based in Hama, confirmed that fighting had broken out and accused government forces of trying to advance in the area. But officials have expressed skepticism, stressing that safe zones have not had an encouraging track record.
"We have received promises to stop the shelling on the liberated areas before our participation in the negotiations", he asserted, adding that "we attended the negotiations with the aim of stopping the shedding of Syrian blood".
He said "security belts" will be created along the borders of the "de-escalation zones" to prevent incidents and fighting between opposing sides.
Russian Federation said on Saturday that the United States has welcomed the outcome of the recent round of the Syria settlement talks held in Astana this week.
The plan will play to Russia's desire to appear as a peacemaker, Suchkov said. "And we haven't laid out any specifics any further than that at this point".
What does the United States think about all this?
The exact boundaries of the proposed safe zones in Syria are yet to be defined but they are meant to focus on rebel-held territory.
The U.N. has signaled that it sees the agreement reached on Thursday in Kazakhstan as a "step in the right direction", while Fox News notes that Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to the safe zone concept in principle during their recent telephone conversation.
In rebel-held Idlib, a protest was held Friday against the plan, denounced as a plot to "divide Syria". The Pentagon said Friday that Moscow had not officially notified it of any shift affecting air operations in Syria.
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said the USA military has "not changed or altered our mission in any way".
