Kerry Highlights Importance of Truce Agreement in Syria

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US Secretary of State, John Kerry has said partition of Syria could be part of plan B in case temporary truce is not actualized and no step is taken towards political solution.

As BBC Turkish has reported, Kerry spoke as follows in the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations:

“If we wait longer, we might be late for keeping Syria as a single country”.

Kerry stating that they don’t favor division of Syria said, “If we don’t take any step, things might get worse. Russia probably assesses this [division] possibility”.

Kerry didn’t give a clear answer to questions of US senators on how this division could be.

According to the plan on which the US and Russia have agreed, a temporary truce will begin in Syria on February 27, Saturday.

Syrian President Bashar al Assad also said they have approved the truce but added that they will continue the operations against groups affiliated with Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and Al Qaeda will continue.

CLICK - SYRIA ACCEPTS TRUCE AGREEMENT OF US, RUSSIA

Syrian Opposition Higher Council of Negotiation backed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar has also given conditional approval to the truce.

Cooperation with Russia

Kerry in his speech reminded that Syrian army advancing by support of Russia may capture Aleppo, and added: “Nevertheless, keeping the control of Aleppo in the civil war of five years has been difficult for all of the groups”.

Kerry saying “We will wait and see” in response to question on whether Russia will abide by the truce, noted that Moscow is on the way of cooperating with Russia in the recent days and it took a step to have humanitarian aid reach 80,000 civilians in Syria.

However, he added that they are cautious about Russia.

“We will have a better opinion in a few days. We are not being dreamy; our eyes are open”.

Refugee crisis

Kerry accusing Russia President Vladimir Putin of imposing pressure on Europe by using refugee crisis said, “Europe is face to face with a huge threat because of the incidents. They mention different border security precautions. The US needs to be prepared to help Europe in future”. (YY/TK)