The State Department admitted on Thursday that there’s no firm agreement about the details of this week’s Syria ceasefire, and suggested that reporters should ask the Syrian government if they want to learn more about the hazy agreement.
The Obama administration says the new ceasefire detail started on Wednesday and is open-ended, but the Syrian government said it started Thursday and will only last 48 hours.
When pressed for an explanation about the confusion, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said he had none.
“You are right to note a little bit of a discrepancy there in terms of the start time,” he told reporters Thursday. “Look, we stand by our statement that it went into effect May 4 at 12:01 local time in Syria.”
“As to why the regime said otherwise, you’d have to ask them,” he added. “There may have been coordination issues on the ground. I don’t have any other clear explanation than that.”
On how long the ceasefire will last, Toner indicated there is no firm agreement, and said only that the U.S. is hoping that it lasts for more than two days.
“It is our hope, and we’ve expressed this beginning with the reaffirmations last week… we want these to be open-ended,” he said.
“They have given it a 48-hour time limit,” he added. “We’ll let that time limit proceed, but what we would like to see is obviously, this continue, and be as open-ended as possible.”
Despite reports that the vague ceasefire hadn’t ended violence in Syria, Toner said violence has decreased.
“It appears that, today at least, there’s a decrease in the level of violence,” he said.
