U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced last weekend that they had agreed on the details of a cease-fire in the bloody Syrian conflict. Details of the agreement remain unclear, and what little has been revealed makes the deal sound like a truly innovative solution — which means that there is great skepticism about its prospects for success. Nevertheless, even a temporary halt in the fighting is to be applauded if it allows humanitarian relief for long-suffering civilians caught in the crossfire between government forces, the rebels and their supporters.
It is estimated that 430,000 people have been killed during the Syrian civil war and 11 million people displaced, creating the worst refugee crisis since World War II. The situation has been especially acute in Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city and its primary commercial center. As one of the first cities to fall to the rebels, it has had symbolic importance throughout the fighting. The Damascus government has launched several bloody offensives — and is accused of using chemical weapons — to retake the city, but the guerrillas maintain a grip on the eastern half of Aleppo.
The cease-fire announced last week is designed to offer relief to those besieged inhabitants. The United States and Russia would press the parties they support in the conflict to suspend fighting for seven consecutive days. If the pact holds, then the two governments would establish a Joint Implementation Center for cooperation on military operations in Syria that would go after terror groups — those organizations that enjoy neither U.S. nor Russian support such as the Islamic State radicals or the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front.