Powers agree on 'cessation of hostilities' in Syria

MUNICH, Germany - The United States, Russia and other powers have reached agreement on a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria's civil war that allows for immediate humanitarian access to besieged areas, Secretary of State John Kerry announced early Friday morning.

The end of hostilities, which Kerry avoided calling a cease-fire, is scheduled to go into effect "in one week's time," Kerry said. Humanitarian access to towns and cities in Syria where food and medical supplies have been blocked, sometimes for months, is to begin immediately.

"It was unanimous," Kerry said. "Everybody today agreed on the urgency of humanitarian access. What we have here are words on paper. What we need to see in the next few days are actions on the ground."

Agreement came after daylong consultations that lasted until early Friday in Munich. Hours earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov huddled with his counterpart from Iran, Russia's ally in backing the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, and Kerry sat down with allies backing the Syrian opposition, before all parties gathered for a joint meeting at which the deal was struck.

Lavrov called cessation of hostilities the "first step" toward a full cease-fire.

The effort has been considered a last chance to stop the carnage in Syria that has left hundreds of thousands dead and sent millions fleeing from the country. What was already a desperate situation in Syria has greatly worsened over the last few weeks, as massive Russian bombardment in and around the city of Aleppo has scattered opposition fighters and driven tens of thousands of civilians toward the barricaded Turkish border.

Participants said they had noted a new resolve in U.S. willingness to stand up to the Russians, who agreed in December to a U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire in conjunction with peace negotiations.

The administration has been under pressure from its allies to stop the flow into Europe of what are now nearly one million refugees. Partners in the Middle East have also openly despaired of what they see as declining U.S. leadership in the region.

Beyond its recent appearance of allowing Russia to act with impunity, the administration has long resisted calls from regional partners to increase its relatively low level of military aid and training to opposition forces, even as President Obama insisted that Assad would have to step down. Failure of the Munich effort would have presented the administration with a decision on whether to reverse course and expand its assistance to the opposition.

Some diplomats here noted that the Russians may been more amenable now to an early cease-fire, since the air strikes and Iran-aided ground operations have achieved their goal of regaining control for Assad over much of the country's western population centers. This month's bombing has driven opposition forces out of areas of Aleppo and the surrounding province they had occupied almost since the civil war began in earnest four years ago.

"Everybody's calculations have shifted" following events of the last few weeks, one diplomat said. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the still-tentative plan and closed-door negotiations.

Kerry met with Lavrov earlier in the day for nearly 90 minutes. "We're going to have a serious conversation about all aspects about what's happening in Syria," he said before reporters were ushered out of the room. "Obviously, at some point in time," he said, "we want to make progress on the issues of humanitarian access and cease-fire."

The plan, drafted by United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura, in consultation with Kerry and the Syrian opposition, assumes that Assad's government, which is not represented here, would be pressed by Russia to agree. Parties to the talks said that the first relief drops could occur as early as this weekend.

Opposition leaders had said they were optimistic after talks with Kerry and others. "We'll wait two days and see if all the promises they made are kept," Salem al-Meslet, spokesman for a negotiating team appointed by the Syrian opposition to open U.N.-sponsored talks with the government, said before the agreement was announced. "Hopefully, we'll see something by Monday."

Meslet said the opposition would return to talks with the government if the plan is implemented. But, he said, "we have to see something - food to go to children who are starving to death. Then we'll go sit at the same table" with the government.

"I can't stop Putin," he said of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Can you say no to Putin?" he said, referring to the United States and its allies.

The initial session of the negotiations was suspended last week after the opposition protested the lack of humanitarian access and the escalated Russian air strikes near Aleppo.

Under the draft plan as it stood early Thursday, Russia would take responsibility for humanitarian airdrops, avoiding potential problems of U.S. or allied military aircraft flying over combat zones in sovereign Syrian territory. Although the United States and its allies have conducted thousands of air strikes over Syria in the last 18 months, all have targeted the Islamic State in areas beyond the government's control, and with its tacit acceptance.