ISTANBUL: Turkish state media Wednesday said Turkey and Russia had agreed a nationwide truce plan for Syria but none of the key players in the conflict offered an immediate confirmation.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said the plan aims to expand a cease-fire in the city of Aleppo — brokered by Turkey and Russia earlier this month to allow the evacuation of civilians — to the whole country.
If successful, the plan would form the basis of upcoming political negotiations between the Damascus regime and the opposition, overseen by Russia and Turkey in the Kazakh capital Astana, it added.
But in a speech in Ankara after the report was published, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made no reference to the plan, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could not answer on an issue “about which I don’t have enough information.”
Meanwhile, a Syrian opposition source, who asked not to be named, told AFP in Beirut that details still had to be submitted to opposition fighters and said there was no agreement as yet.
“The armed revolutionary factions have not received any official proposal for a cease-fire in Syria,” Labib Nahhas, head of foreign relations for the powerful Ahrar Al-Sham group added on his official Twitter account.
“News talking about their approval of a cease-fire is incorrect.”
An official from the High Negotiations Committee — which oversees political talks of the Syrian opposition — said there was no information about a cease-fire so far. There was also no reaction from the Syrian regime.
Anadolu said both sides were working for the cease-fire to come into force at midnight but gave no further details on its implementation.
The report came after Ankara has hosted a succession of closed-door talks between Russia and Syrian opposition fighters over the last weeks.
Meanwhile, a draft UN resolution obtained by AP would impose sanctions on 11 Syrians and 10 Syrian organizations and companies allegedly involved in chemical weapons attacks in the war-ravaged country.
The proposed Security Council resolution would also ban all countries from supplying Syria’s government with helicopters, which investigators have determined were used in chemical attacks.
The resolution obtained by the AP Tuesday follows an investigation by the United Nations and the chemical weapons watchdog that determined the Syrian regime was behind at least three attacks involving chlorine gas and the Daesh group was responsible for at least one involving mustard gas.
The US, Britain and France have been pressing for sanctions on Syria. But Russia, Syria’s closest ally, has questioned the investigators’ conclusions linking attacks to the government.
Separately, airstrikes carried out by unidentified aircraft killed at least 22 civilians, including 10 children, in a village held by the Daesh group in eastern Syria, a monitor said Wednesday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the civilians were from two families at Hojna in Deir Ezzor, which borders Iraq and is the country’s second biggest province after Homs.
The oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor is almost totally under Daesh control and has been regularly targeted by a US-led military coalition.
The only part of the eastern province outside Daesh control is its capital, which is also named Deir Ezzor and is held by Syrian regime forces.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said the plan aims to expand a cease-fire in the city of Aleppo — brokered by Turkey and Russia earlier this month to allow the evacuation of civilians — to the whole country.
If successful, the plan would form the basis of upcoming political negotiations between the Damascus regime and the opposition, overseen by Russia and Turkey in the Kazakh capital Astana, it added.
But in a speech in Ankara after the report was published, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made no reference to the plan, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could not answer on an issue “about which I don’t have enough information.”
Meanwhile, a Syrian opposition source, who asked not to be named, told AFP in Beirut that details still had to be submitted to opposition fighters and said there was no agreement as yet.
“The armed revolutionary factions have not received any official proposal for a cease-fire in Syria,” Labib Nahhas, head of foreign relations for the powerful Ahrar Al-Sham group added on his official Twitter account.
“News talking about their approval of a cease-fire is incorrect.”
An official from the High Negotiations Committee — which oversees political talks of the Syrian opposition — said there was no information about a cease-fire so far. There was also no reaction from the Syrian regime.
Anadolu said both sides were working for the cease-fire to come into force at midnight but gave no further details on its implementation.
The report came after Ankara has hosted a succession of closed-door talks between Russia and Syrian opposition fighters over the last weeks.
Meanwhile, a draft UN resolution obtained by AP would impose sanctions on 11 Syrians and 10 Syrian organizations and companies allegedly involved in chemical weapons attacks in the war-ravaged country.
The proposed Security Council resolution would also ban all countries from supplying Syria’s government with helicopters, which investigators have determined were used in chemical attacks.
The resolution obtained by the AP Tuesday follows an investigation by the United Nations and the chemical weapons watchdog that determined the Syrian regime was behind at least three attacks involving chlorine gas and the Daesh group was responsible for at least one involving mustard gas.
The US, Britain and France have been pressing for sanctions on Syria. But Russia, Syria’s closest ally, has questioned the investigators’ conclusions linking attacks to the government.
Separately, airstrikes carried out by unidentified aircraft killed at least 22 civilians, including 10 children, in a village held by the Daesh group in eastern Syria, a monitor said Wednesday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the civilians were from two families at Hojna in Deir Ezzor, which borders Iraq and is the country’s second biggest province after Homs.
The oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor is almost totally under Daesh control and has been regularly targeted by a US-led military coalition.
The only part of the eastern province outside Daesh control is its capital, which is also named Deir Ezzor and is held by Syrian regime forces.
