Opposition holds out for 'guarantees' as a crucial truce looms

A cease-fire set to start at sundown on Monday was left in doubt as rebels raised questions

An internationally brokered cease-fire in Syria was due to begin at sundown on Monday but, with only hours to go, the country's opposition forces had yet to sign on.

And in a further sign of the deal's fragility, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad vowed to retake the whole country.

"The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists," Assad said in an interview broadcast by state media, flanked by his delegation at an otherwise deserted road junction.

Assad spoke during a rare public appearance that included attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, which had surrendered last month and reverted to government control after a 4-year siege.

The cease-fire deal, announced on Friday after marathon talks between Russia and the United States, has been billed as the best chance yet to halt the bloodshed in Syria's five-year civil war.

As well as bringing a temporary halt to the fighting, it aims to provide crucial aid to thousands of desperate civilians, many of whom suffered an especially bloody weekend of airstrikes.

Joint targeting

Under the deal, an initial 48-hour cease-fire is to begin at 7 pm local time in Syria, halting fighting in areas not held by jihadists like the Islamic State group.

Aid deliveries to the country's many besieged and "hard-to-reach" areas are set to simultaneously begin, with government and rebel forces ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access in particular to the divided and devastated city of Aleppo.

If the cease-fire then holds for a week, Moscow and Washington are to begin unprecedented joint targeting of jihadist forces including IS and the former al-Qaida affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.

After years of stalled peace efforts and the failure of a landmark truce agreed in February, world powers are anxious to bring an end to a conflict that has left more than 290,000 dead and forced millions from their homes.

But Syria's opposition is deeply sceptical that the government will abide by the agreement and on Monday demanded further guarantees before endorsing the deal.

"We want to know what the guarantees are," Salem al-Muslet, a spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition umbrella group, said.

"We are asking for guarantees especially from the United States, which is a party to the agreement."

He said key questions included how the deal would define "terrorist" groups that can continue to be targeted and what the response would be to violations of the truce.

"We fear that Russia will classify all the Free Syrian Army (rebel factions) as terrorists," he said.

AFP - AP

(China Daily 09/13/2016 page12)