Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that he’s still hopeful that a tenuous cease-fire agreement in Syria, brokered by the U.S. and Russia last week, can still be implemented, even after Syria declared it dead.
Under the agreement, the U.S. was hoping to see seven days of a cease-fire or reduced violence, plus the increased flow of humanitarian aid in Syria. If those conditions could be met, the U.S. would agree to coordinate with Russia to destroy the Islamic State in the region.
On Monday, the Syrian government declared the cease-fire over and announced it would “continue fulfilling its national duties in fighting terrorism,” according to Reuters. That seemed to annoy Kerry when he was asked about it at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“It would be good if they didn’t talk first to the press but if they talked to the people who are actually negotiating this,” Kerry said when asked about the Syrian position.
But he also said he sees signs of progress, and that the deal shouldn’t be abandoned so quickly.
“So we just began today to see real movement of humanitarian goods, and let’s see where we are, and we’re happy to have a good conversation with them about how to proceed,” Kerry said.
That last remark stands in stark contrast to prior assessments from the State Department last week, when it said it saw no movement at all on humanitarian aid in Syria. He also indicated Monday there wasn’t all that much movement on humanitarian aid.
“[It’s] time to end the grandstanding and time to do the real work of delivering on the humanitarian goods that are necessary for access,” Kerry said.
In the wake of Syria’s announcement, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. has seen no movement on humanitarian aid, but said the U.S. is willing to extend the deal.
“We are prepared to extend the cessation of hostilities, while working to strengthen it and expand deliveries of assistance,” he said. “We will be consulting with our Russian counterparts to continue to urge them to use their influence on Assad to these ends.”
But it’s not clear what Kirby meant by an extension. As described by the State Department last week, the deal requires seven days of reduced violence and increasing access for humanitarian aid, but it allows all parties to try to reach those terms over time. Another spokesman, Mark Toner, said that if a few days were achieved and then the situation slipped back into violence again, the clock could be restarted again, implying that the deal might give the parties several weeks or even months to hit the seven-day goal.
Kirby also noted that the cease-fire deal is between the U.S. and Russia, not the U.S. and Syria, “so we expect Russia to clarify their position.”
