Russia's defence ministry said Saturday that its officials had signed a deal with moderate Syrian rebels at peace talks in Cairo on how a safe zone in Eastern Ghouta will function.
"As a result of talks held in Cairo between Russian defence ministry officials and moderate Syrian opposition brokered by the Egyptian side ... agreements have been signed on how the Eastern Ghouta de-escalation zone will function," the defence ministry said in a statement sent to AFP.
Syrian rebel group Failaq al-Rahman, which operates in Eastern Ghouta, welcomed the cessation and said ceasefires were a first step to resolving the Syrian conflict. Writing on Twitter, spokesman Wael Olwan said the government must respect the truce.
The regime military declared a cessation of hostilities on Saturday in Eastern Ghouta region near the capital, state television reported.
State television reported a "cessation of fighting activities in several areas of Eastern Ghouta."
It said the cessation began at 12:00 noon (0900 GMT) and any violation would receive an "appropriate response".
Olwan told Zaman al-Wasl that the deal is a result of the ongoing communication between Russia, the United States and Jordan.
“We commend the position of the southern front factions operating in Houran which over the past days insisted that the ceasefire agreement in force in southern Syria be extended to include the eastern region of al-Ghouta, which the al-Assad forces and militias have repeatedly tried to invade in the recent period,” said Alwan.
He added, “We in the al-Rahman Corps did not communicate with anyone in this regard. We did not sign or participate in any agreement, but we welcome any regional or international effort to stop the violent attacks the al-Assad forces have been committing on the eastern al-Ghouta for more than a month. The regime and its militias have used poisonous gas and air raids to kill dozens of civilians.”
“With the Russians announcing this agreement today, we do not expect the al-Assad regime and Iran to abide by this new agreement. They have announced several previous international agreements which included the al-Ghouta are which the al-Assad and the Iranian militias did not abide by.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense issued a statement, “The agreement today delineated the boundaries of the zone to reduce the escalation in the eastern al-Ghouta, and it specified the locations of the separating and monitoring forces in al-Ghouta and their powers. The agreement also defined the lines that will be used to deliver humanitarian aid and for civilian crossings.”
The Ministry pointed out that the Eastern al-Ghouta Agreement was the result of the negotiations held recently in Cairo between representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense and representatives of the “moderate” opposition, according to the Ministry’s description.
The announcement about the Eastern Ghouta agreement came about two weeks after the South Agreement, which has not yet entered into force, was announced.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that the South Agreement would enter into force as soon as possible.
