MESOP INSIGHT SYRIA : Russia Backs Away from the Political Process
4 Sept 2016 – MESOP – US officials in Geneva had said up to yesterday that a deal for 48-hour ceasefires, allowing aid into parts of Aleppo, was imminent. The proposal would also have included US intelligence-sharing with the Russians over attacks on the jihadists of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, while supposedly restricting some airstrikes by the Assad regime.However, by Sunday afternoon, the American officials were saying that Russia had stepped back from any agreement. Diplomats would confer with their capitals, with US Secretary of State John Kerry meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday. www.mesop.de