Secretary of State John Kerry today said 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 Sunday 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 organisations.
Fighting has intensified in Syria during recent weeks and an earlier deadline to cease military activities was not observed. The United States, Russia and other world powers agreed on February 12 on a deal calling for the ceasing of hostilities within a week, the delivery of urgently needed aid to besieged areas of Syria and a return to peace talks in Geneva.
UN envoy Staffan De Mistura halted the latest Syria talks on February 3, because of major differences between the two sides, exacerbated by increased aerial bombings and a wide military offensive by Syrian troops and their allies under the cover of Russian airstrikes.
The humanitarian situation has only gotten worse, with an estimated 13.5 million Syrians in need of aid, including 6 million children.
"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 US position that any political solution to the conflict will not work if Syrian President Bashar Assad remains at the helm of the nation.
"Make no mistake. The answer to the Syrian civil war will not be found in any military alliance with Assad," Kerry said. "Let me make that clear.
