War-ravaged Syria was reportedly living Friday through the first day of a nationwide ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey.
Syria's military said it halted operations at midnight, except against ISIS and other terror groups, Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced the agreement that the Syrian government and opposition rebels would cease fighting in the country's long-running civil war.
According to Russian state media TASS, Putin said the two sides had also agreed to enter peace talks to end the conflict that has raged for nearly six years.
“A very great deal of work was done together with our partners from Turkey,” President Vladimir Putin said at a televised meeting Thursday with his foreign and defense ministers. The accord is something we’ve “been waiting a long time for,” he said.
CNN reports that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier that Russia and Turkey would be guarantors to the agreement.
Groups considered as terrorist organizations by the UN Security Council, such as ISIS, are excluded from the agreement, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Russia and Turkey announced they’ve brokered a cease-fire agreement in Syria that they hope will pave the way to a peace settlement ending the nation’s civil war, seizing the initiative from the U.S. after years of failed diplomacy.
Bloomberg reports the deal sidelines the U.S., which had led peace efforts without success for years, most recently when a similar cease-fire negotiated with Russia collapsed after only a week in September. Russia said the U.S. may join the accord once Donald Trump takes office as president in January. Russia stepped up its diplomatic campaign after its forces helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to defeat rebel fighters in the country’s largest city, Aleppo, this month in a turning point in the war.
While calling the cease-fire accord “a positive development,” U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement that “an inclusive Syrian-led political process between the Syrian regime and the opposition is critical for establishing a durable settlement to this conflict.”
