A newly brokered U.S.-Russian ceasefire’s lifespan is in jeopardy after an errant U.S. strike in Syria, Russian accusations, and clear violations by the Syrian military.
An errant U.S. air strike killed nearly 60 Syrian military personnel Saturday. The U.S. officials have said they thought they were targeting Islamic State terrorists, and expressed “regret” for the mistake. The U.S. even informed Russia of its intention to strike the target, and received no objection.
Russia immediately seized upon the U.S. strike as supposed evidence of U.S. wrong doing, and escalated rhetoric against the U.S. mission in Syria.
“We are reaching a really terrifying conclusion for the whole world: that the White House is defending Islamic State. Now there can be no doubts about that,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told state media Sunday.
“The actions of coalition pilots — if they, as we hope, were not taken on an order from Washington — are on the boundary between criminal negligence and connivance with Islamic State terrorists,” a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry accused after the incident.
The ceasefire agreement stipulates that all parties in Syria will begin a “genuine reduction of violence,” for a period of one week. If the ceasefire holds for a week, then the U.S. will open a joint operations center with Russia meant to target the Islamic State and al-Qaida elements in Syria.
American officials told The New York Times they suspected Russia was never committed to the ceasefire, and much preferred the status quo in which it exerts significant influence in shaping events on the ground.
The ceasefire was repeatedly broken by the Assad regime, and was never agreed to by the largest opposition groups inside Syria. Reports indicate amid the supposed ceasefire, the Assad regime targeted several opposition held neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo as recently as Sunday.
A central effort of the ceasefire was to allow humanitarian aid to besieged populations throughout Syria. The Assad regime has systematically denied humanitarian efforts to reach the city of Aleppo, and refused to issue permits to UN convoys.
The Syrian military said its ceasefire obligations would end Monday evening, and that they “do not know if the truce will be extended again.” The military’s statements indicate the U.S. and Russia likely will not end up military cooperating, and that both sides will resume independent operations inside Syria.
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