Syria ceasefire: Obama warns Russia, Damascus

Beirut, Feb. 26: US President Barack Obama has warned Moscow and Damascus the “world will be watching” their commitment to a looming ceasefire, as the 17-nation group backing the Syria peace process prepared to fine-tune the deal.

Obama said the next few days would be critical for the partial truce brokered by Moscow and Washington due to begin at midnight Friday which has been agreed by both President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and Syria’s top opposition grouping.

The deal, which excludes the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group and other extremists marks the biggest diplomatic push yet to help end Syria’s violence, but has been plagued by doubts after the failure of previous peace efforts.

Members of the 17-nation group backing the process are to meet in Geneva on Friday to work out further details of the agreement, which is expected to be endorsed by the UN Security Council on the same day, diplomats said.

There are hopes a successful “cessation of hostilities” will lead to the resumption of peace talks that collapsed in Geneva earlier this month.

“Tomorrow is going to be a very important, I will say a crucial day,” the UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said.

The agreement allows military action to continue against Islamic State, which seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, as well as against the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front and other jihadist groups.

Obama said he was certain those groups would continue to fight, but stressed the US-led coalition was winning the war against Islamic State, citing territorial gains.