Al-Monitor | Hamidreza Azizi: As various international peace initiatives have sought a political solution to the Syrian crisis, the most recent tangible breakthrough came from someplace new. On July 9, the long-awaited meeting between the presidents of�Russia and the United States�took place on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, where�the two sides reaffirmed a recently�reached cease-fire for southern Syria.

A day after the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey�Lavrov said�Russia will�continue cooperating�with the United States on the de-escalation zones�in southern Syria. He further pointed out that�Russia, the United States and Jordan will�establish a center�in Amman�to coordinate all the details of the zones.

The very fact that the�US-Russian truce initiative�has survived its first week�of implementation suggests that this time�the two major powers have more incentive�to cooperate on their areas of shared interests�regardless of how partial and non-inclusive they could be.

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