UN says truce deal in southern Syria will help peace talks

DAMASCUS, Syria — The United Nations on Saturday welcomed the agreement struck between the United States and Russia for a ceasefire in southwestern Syria, saying it would support upcoming peace talks.

The UN’s deputy special envoy to Syria, Ramzy Ramzy, said he hopes the agreement announced Friday in Hamburg, Germany, would lead to similar arrangements elsewhere in Syria to reduce the violence.

“The UN is always seeking to reduce tension and escalation in fighting, and I think this is a step in the right direction,” he told reporters in Damascus.

“All this is obviously support for the political process.”

The ceasefire goes into effect at noon today, Damascus time, with no end date, according to U.S. officials and the Jordanian government, which is also involved in the deal. Russian officials said Russian military police would monitor the new truce, but U.S. officials said the details were still under discussion.

Last week, Syria’s military said it was halting combat operations in the southern provinces of Daraa, Quneitra and Sweida for four days, in advance of a new round of Russian-sponsored talks in Kazakhstan. The Syrian government extended the unilateral ceasefire, which was set to expire Saturday.

Syrian opposition activists reported low-level violence in Daraa on Saturday, after weeks of intense fighting in the divided province. Nabaa media and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a woman was killed when government helicopters dropped barrel bombs on a village in northeastern Daraa. The Observatory said 16 such bombs were dropped in the area, wounding several.

Previous ceasefires in Syria have collapsed or failed to reduce violence for long, and it was unclear whether the latest deal would fare any better.

The deal is separate from an agreement that Russia, Turkey and Iran struck this year to try to establish “de-escalation zones” in Syria. The U.S., wary of Iran’s involvement, stayed away from that effort. Follow-up talks last week in Kazakhstan were unable to produce agreement on finalizing a ceasefire in those zones.

A new round of UN-sponsored peace talks is to be held in Geneva on Monday.