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Truce eve crucial day for Syria: UN envoy

Thursday, 25 February 2016 10:12 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 26 February 2016 2:58 AM ]

UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura gestures at a press briefing during peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on February 3, 2016. ©AFP

The UN envoy to Syria says a “crucial day” lies ahead of Syria, where a planned ceasefire in the conflict-torn country is expected to come into effect.

"Tomorrow is going to be a very important, I will say a crucial day," Staffan de Mistura told reporters at the UN's European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday.

On Monday, the United States and Russia said the truce has been planned to take effect in the Arab country on February 27 midnight Damascus time. The Syrian government has accepted the terms on the condition that military efforts against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group and al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front continue.

The Saudi-backed Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) also announced that it would temporarily adhere to the truce.

"A provisional truce for two weeks would provide a chance to determine the commitment of the other side", read a statement issued by the HNC.

Following the announcement of the ceasefire, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called for parliamentary elections to be held on April 13.

On Friday, members of the Syria Support Group, a 17-nation grouping comprising Moscow and Washington among others, which backs the realization of peace in Syria, are to meet in Geneva to work out further details of the ceasefire agreement. The UN envoy will afterwards announce possible plans for the resumption of UN-backed peace talks for the resolution of the country’s five-year-long crisis.

A Syrian child cries as Syrians flee a northern battlefield on February 5, 2016. ©AFP

Three rounds of UN-backed negotiations have so far been held in Vienna and New York on the situation in Syria since last October. The latest round of peace talks unraveled in Geneva on February 3 less than a week after they started as the HNC refused to attend a meeting with De Mistura.

According to a new report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the foreign-sponsored conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.

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