Ceasefire in southern Syria goes into effect

Concern remains over ways to ensure truce is enforced

BEIRUT— U.S. President Donald Trump called for expanded co-operation with Russia on Sunday, as a ceasefire brokered by the two powers and Jordan for southern Syria came into effect.

The ceasefire covering three wartorn provinces in southern Syria is the first tangible outcome following months of strategy and diplomacy between the new Trump administration and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump tweeted that the ceasefire, which came into effect at noon Sunday, “will save lives.”

“Now it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia!” he posted on Twitter shortly after the agreement came into effect.

A resident and local opposition activist in Daraa, near the Jordanian border, reported an uneasy calm hours into the truce.

“There’s still a lot of anxiety,” Ahmad al-Masalmeh said. “We’ve entered the ceasefire but there are no mechanisms to enforce it. That’s what concerns people.”

Six years of fighting and siege have devastated Daraa, one of the first cities to see large protests against President Bashar Assad in 2011.

It remains contested by U.S.backed rebels and Syrian government forces supported by Russia and Iran. Large swaths of the city have been destroyed.

The truce also covers the Quneitra and Sweida provinces, where the government and the rebels are also fighting Daesh militants, who are not included in the agreement.

No ceasefire has lasted long in the six-year-old Syrian war, and no mechanisms have been publicly set out to monitor or enforce this latest endeavour.