Russia wants UN to endorse Syria deal with US

Russia wants the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution endorsing the deal hammered out between Moscow and Washington to halt fighting in Syria and jointly target Islamist rebels, its ambassador said Thursday.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said there were discussions at the United Nations on the proposed resolution that could be adopted on Wednesday when the Security Council holds a special meeting on Syria.

"We are working on it," Churkin told reporters. "I think we need to adopt it on the 21st."

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend the high-level council meeting, held on the sidelines of the annual General Assembly meeting.

Churkin said the resolution would provide "endorsement of the agreement" reached last week that allowed a ceasefire to go into effect on Monday, paving the way to aid deliveries and a possible resumption of peace talks.

The cessation of hostilities was holding on Thursday, but another key provision of the agreement -- the delivery of aid to besieged areas -- had yet to be implemented.

Some 20 trucks loaded with aid to be delivered to the battleground city of Aleppo remained in a buffer zone between Turkey and Syria on Thursday, awaiting a green light from Damascus to begin their journey.

Addressing the council, US Ambassador Samantha Power said that the deal "is not an agreement based on trust and promises."

"It is an agreement based on reciprocal actions, halting attacks and allowing for deliveries of assistance," Power said.

Under the deal, the United States and Russia will set up a joint implementation center to cooperate in the targeting of Islamist rebels while President Bashar al-Assad's government grounds its planes and helicopters, she added.

"The regime would no longer be able to use the excuse that it is targeting (the Al-Qaeda-linked) Al-Nusra in order to go after its own people," she said.

Ahead of the council meeting on Syria, there were discussions about holding a meeting of the International Syria Support Group, made up of some 20 countries backing the peace process in Syria, possibly as early as Monday.

More than 300,000 people have been killed in the five-and-a-half-year war in Syria where UN peace efforts have failed to unite the many players in the conflict behind a political settlement.

Source: AFP