Major powers fell short of a full ceasefire in Syria, agreeing to a “nationwide cessation of hostilities” on Friday, which is set to begin in a week.
However, the partial truce will not apply to the Dae’sh group or the al-Nusra front militias.
The communique of the plan reached in Munich said the powers had established a ceasefire task force, under the auspices of the UN, co-chaired by Russia and the United States, and including members having government and opposition groups.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and UN envoy Staffan de Mistura held nearly six hours of negotiations with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and other European and Middle Eastern foreign ministers to reach the agreement.
It foresees the creation of two task forces to separately oversee delivery of humanitarian aid and the cessation of hostilities.
At a news conference, US Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged the Munich meeting produced commitments on paper only.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the news conference that Russia would not stop air strikes in Syria since the “cessation of hostilities” does not apply to Dae’sh and al-Nusrah.
The US and European allies have been alleging that few Russian strikes have targeted those groups, with the vast majority hitting Western-backed opposition groups seeking to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad government.
Lavrov said peace talks should resume in Geneva as soon as possible and that all Syrian opposition groups should participate. He added that halting hostilities would be a difficult task.
But British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said ending fighting could only succeed if Russia stopped air strikes supporting Syrian government forces’ advance against the opposition.
Diplomats cautioned that Russia had until now not demonstrated any interest in seeing Assad replaced and was pushing for a military victory.
