Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared for a joint press conference in Geneva Switzerland today. The two have negotiated a plan to end the hostilities in Syria, and particularly Aleppo.
The hostilities in Syria have been underway since 2011, causing tremendous damage to the ancient state, to its people, and to nations trying to deal with a massive refugee crisis.
THE CEASEFIRE PLAN
As of September 12, all of the various parties involved will cease fire for 48 hours.
If this succeeds, another 48 hours will be used to make the ceasefire “permanent.”
The ceasefire must hold without significant hostilities for seven days.
Then the United States and Russia will establish a joint execution and implementation center where both nations would deal with tracking and separating terror groups from moderate groups.
United States and Russia have agreed upon areas where United States and Russia would perform airstrikes exclusively or in joint force. Syria has agreed to operate in other areas.
Actions will concentrate upon physical separation of opposition groups. Procedures have been established for reacting to breaches of the ceasefire.
Once hostilities have been reduced sufficiently, there will humanitarian aid.
TRUST IS LOW
Both of the parties to the conference agreed that trust was low, but that they have agreed to procedures to watch and verify activities.