{"id":23523,"date":"2016-02-26T01:10:58","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T01:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/obama-says-latest-pact-could-end-syria-s-war\/"},"modified":"2016-02-26T01:10:49","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T01:10:49","slug":"obama-says-latest-pact-could-end-syria-s-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/obama-says-latest-pact-could-end-syria-s-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama says latest pact ‘could end Syria’s war’"},"content":{"rendered":"

{But US president says scepticism is warranted on whether truce will hold as fighting continues to rage around Aleppo.}<\/p>\n

US President Barack Obama says a proposed ceasefire due to come into effect on Saturday could be a key step towards ending Syria’s war.<\/p>\n

Obama told a meeting of members of his National Security Council in Washington on Thursday that halting air strikes was essential for the truce to be successful.<\/p>\n

He added that ending fighting among various forces was the best route in tackling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).<\/p>\n

“The only way to deal with ISIL in a way that defeats them in a lasting way is to end the chaos in the civil war that has engulfed Syria,” Obama said.<\/p>\n

“That’s how ISIL was able to thrive in the first place.”<\/p>\n

But Obama noted, however, it remains to be seen whether the “cessation of hostilities” will hold. <\/p>\n

“None of us are under any illusions, there are many potential pitfalls and reasons for scepticism,” he said.<\/p>\n

Russia and the US set a deadline of midnight Damascus time (22GMT) on Friday for a cessation of hostilities between President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and opposition forces.<\/p>\n

The deal marks the biggest diplomatic push yet to end Syria’s nearly five-year old war.<\/p>\n

Jim Walsh from MIT’s security studies programme said Obama appeared cautious about the success of the ceasefire in his statements.<\/p>\n

“On the one hand he put his arms around this new ceasefire arrangement and identified with that, but he was quick to say scepticism is warranted – there will still be fighting with this ceasefire – and he tried to lower expectations,” Walsh told Al Jazeera. <\/p>\n

The US president’s comments came as war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that forces loyal to Assad – supported by Russian air strikes – had taken back the strategic town of Khanaser from ISIL.<\/p>\n

Rebels have been fighting to take control of the town, 50km southeast of Aleppo, with forces loyal to Assad.<\/p>\n

The rebels have controlled the main highway to Aleppo, Syria’s largest city that government forces have been encircling in recent weeks. <\/p>\n

Al Jazeera Arabic correspondents also reported at least four people were killed in a series of Russian air strikes in Aleppo’s northern and southwestern countryside. Sources said a civilian was killed and others were wounded when government forces shelled a camp of displaced people in Latakia’s northern countryside.<\/p>\n

Near the capital Damascus, another woman was killed and several injured in a Russian air strike on Zamalka. A number of people were also wounded in air strikes on Ain Tarma and Al-Marj in Damascus’ eastern countryside. <\/p>\n

In the town of Daraya, sources told AJA that regime helicopters had dropped dozens of barrel bombs on residential areas. The town was also the target of government artillery.<\/p>\n

\"Russia<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{But US president says scepticism is warranted on whether truce will hold as fighting continues to rage around Aleppo.} US President Barack Obama says a proposed ceasefire due to come into effect on Saturday could be a key step towards ending Syria’s war. Obama told a meeting of members of his National Security Council in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23523"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23523"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}