News / Russia / News

US declining to publicize Syria truce deal: Russia

Saturday, 17 September 2016 6:07 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 17 September 2016 9:39 AM ]

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin (Photo by AP)

Russia has accused the US of failing to share with the United Nations documents outlining a joint agreement that calls for a ceasefire in Syria, saying such an attitude adopted by Washington makes the UN endorsement of the deal unlikely.

Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin made the comments on Friday as an urgent Security Council meeting called to discuss the Moscow-Washington brokered Syria truce deal was cancelled amid disagreements between the two sides over the accord.

"Most likely we are not going to have a resolution at the Security Council because the United States does not want to share those documents with the members of the Security Council," Churkin said, adding, "We believe we cannot ask them to support a document that they haven't seen."

On September 9, Russia and the US agreed on a milestone deal on the crisis in Syria after hours of marathon talks in the Swiss city of Geneva.

The agreement, which came into effect on September 12, urges a nationwide cessation of hostilities in Syria and allows humanitarian access as well as joint Moscow-Washington attacks against terrorist groups, which are not covered by the deal, including Daesh and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

The seven-day truce is the second attempt this year by Russia and the US to bring an end to the Syria conflict, which started in March 2011.

Children play with a bicycle near the rubble of damaged buildings in the Bab al-Hadid neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, September 14, 2016 as a US-Russia brokered ceasefire holds. (Photo by Reuters)

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Russian envoy said that Moscow had presented two separate draft resolutions endorsing the ceasefire agreement, but Washington had tried to introduce changes to the texts.

"They in their typical way came up with a completely different thing -- which is trying to interpret and re-interpret the agreement," he said referring to US officials. "They are not doing the right thing."

Russia has repeatedly called for the US to make the Syria truce agreement public and have the UN Security Council endorse it.

Washington, however, has been reluctant to release the details of the deal, citing security concerns for some US-backed militant groups operating in Syria.

According to UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, more than 400,000 people have been killed due to foreign-backed militancy in Syria. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk