Centrum Stosunków Międzynarodowych - 19 September 2016: Syrian ceasefire nears breaking point

On Monday, September 19, government forces resumed military actions and announced an end to a week-old ceasefire. Syrian air force bombed Aleppo, killing at least 32 people and destroying an aid convoy, while the army started an offensive in and around Damascus. The ceasefire began to broke down after severe tensions during the weekend, when anti-ISIS coalition air force accidentally bombed a Syrian army base in Deir az Zor in Eastern Syria, killing 62 soldiers.

The US Secretary of State John Kerry said that US and Russian diplomats in Geneva are in talks to salvage the ceasefire agreement announced on September 10. This task is made more difficult by mutual distrust engendered by the Deir az Zor incident and recent air strikes by government forces. An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council saw a heated exchange between the US ambassador Samantha Powers and her Russian counterpart Vitaliy Churkin in which both accused each other of breaking the agreement.

One of the recent air strikes hit an aid convoy west of Aleppo. The US has blamed the attack, which claimed about 21 dead, on Russia and Syrian government, while the UN has announced a halt to aid deliveries due to security concerns. Another aid convoy was blocked at the Syria-Turkey border. The ceasefire agreement envisions allowing humanitarian access to cities besieges by Syrian army, but so far this provision has remained on paper.