28 Mar 2024
Tuesday 13 September 2016 - 14:35
Story Code : 231049

Ceasefire in Syria and its requirements

The agreement over enforcement of a seven-day ceasefire in Syria has been announced after many hours of deliberation between foreign ministers of the United States and Russia in Geneva at a time that there are great concerns about commitment of all involved parties to the ceasefire and the possibility of terrorist groups exploiting this opportunity to shore up their positions. Despite this fact, however, the Islamic Republic of Iran, as an effective country in the resolution of Syrias crisis and as a country, whose main and basic approach has been based on finding a political solution to Syria crisis, supports this ceasefire and any other measure action, which may lead to cessation of bloodshed in Syria. Nonetheless, there are certain considerations with regard to the ceasefire, which must be taken into consideration by military institutions that are effective in Syria, especially those countries, which are responsible for enforcement of ceasefire.

Countries responsible for the enforcement of ceasefire must be careful and committed that this few-days opportunity would not change the balance of powers, and would not allow terrorist groups to exploit the ceasefire, thus, strengthening them more than before. Unfortunately, the experiences of past instances of ceasefire has shown that opposition groups have not remained committed to the ceasefire and while taking advantage of it to bolster their positions, have frequently violated the ceasefire and inflicted major losses on the opposite side. For this reason, the announced agreement must be accepted with care and those responsible for its implementation must be required to create the necessary guarantee and make sure that the opposition groups and terrorist groups would not exploit this ceasefire in their own benefit. Commitment to this guarantee, naturally, calls for the use of a special mechanism on the ground, but for the time being and according to what has been announced, a joint committee is to be established by the United States and Russia in order to supervise and make decisions about both the military goals that they want to jointly target and the situation of the ceasefire. In addition to that committee, it is evident that the Syrian government and army and even the Russian side are especially sensitive about preventing terrorist groups from exploiting the opportunity offered by the ceasefire and will follow up on this issue. The Islamic Republic of Iran will certainly give this warning to the governments of both Syria and Russia, as its allied states, in order to exercise adequate care in this regard. However, at the end of the day, any measure that would be taken under these conditions to prevent further blood loss and more damage to the people of Syria is desirable from the viewpoint of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This comes at a time that five years following Iran's decision to support the legal government in Syria as an effective member of the resistance axis, the course of events has revealed the true colors of terrorist groups and most parties, even critics of Iran, are now aware of the correctness of that decision. Today, Syria has turned into a ground for rivalry among major international powers and the demand of the Syrian people, which was first political reforms in their society and now restoration of security and calm, has been overshadowed by demands and interests of international parties involved in Syrias crisis. The Islamic Republic of Iran, however, still stresses the necessity of finding a political solution to the crisis in Syria while underlining the need to respect national sovereignty of this country and allow its people to determine their own political fate. Before long, the day will come when the government and people of Syria will weather this manufactured crisis and regain their effective position in the resistance axis.

 

This article was written by for Mohammad Reza Raouf Sheibani Iran Review on Sep 13, 2016. Mohammad Reza Raouf Sheibani is Islamic Republic of Iran's Ambassador to Syria.
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