Syria | Kerry: ‘Provisional agreement’ reached on ceasefire

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian citizens gather at the scene where two blasts exploded in the pro-government neighborhood of Zahraa

Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday that a “provisional agreement” has been reached on a cease-fire that could begin in the next few days in Syria’s five-year civil war.
Kerry said he spoke in the morning with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss terms of a cease-fire and the two now must reach out to the parties in the conflict.
He declined to go into the details of the agreement, saying it “is not yet done.” But he said he hoped President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk soon and that after that, implementation could begin.
“The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed,” Kerry said. “In fact, we are closer to a cease-fire today than we have been. A cessation of hostilities… is possible over the course of these next hours.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry seemed to stop short of Kerry’s announcement. The ministry said Lavrov and Kerry spoke on the phone yesterday for a second day in a row and discussed “the modality and conditions” for a cease-fire in Syria that would exclude groups that the U.N. Security Council considers terrorist organizations. Fighting has intensified in Syria during recent weeks and an earlier deadline to cease military activities was not observed.
“Peace is better than more war,” Kerry said, standing next to Nasser Judeh, the foreign minister of Jordan, which hosts 635,000 Syrian refugees. “A political solution is better than then a futile attempt to try to find a military one that could result in so many more refugees, so many more jihadists, so much more destruction, and possibly even the complete destruction of Syria itself.”
However, he reiterated the long-time U.S. position that any political solution to the conflict will not work if Syrian President Bashar Assad remains at the helm of the nation. “
On the ground in Syria, a pair of explosions ripped through the central city of Homs, killing at least 32 people and wounding dozens, according to activists and Syrian state TV.
The Homs blasts came amid reports that Syrian government forces captured 31 villages in the northern province of Aleppo from the extremist Islamic State group. Syrian troops have been on the offensive in different parts of the country under the cover of Russian airstrikes.
The television report said yesterday’s blasts struck in the pro-government neighborhood of Zahraa — a frequent target for similar explosions. The report quoted Homs governor Talal Barrazi as saying that 32 people were killed and dozens of others wounded. AP