Russia, Turkey and Iran agree to jointly monitor ceasefire in Syria in step towards ending violence

Russia, Turkey and Iran, the sponsors of the peace talks between the Syrian government and rebels, have agreed to act as joint monitors for the country’s fragile ceasefire - in a promising step towards ending the violence. 

The sides will "establish a trilateral mechanism to observe and ensure full compliance with the ceasefire and prevent any provocations," according to a final statement read by Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Kazakhstan’s foreign minister, following the talks in Astana.

The accord was signed by the three major powers brokering the negotiations on behalf of the Syrian government and armed rebel groups.

Bashar Jaafari, the government’s representative, immediately hailed the talks a success but the opposition said it still had major reservations.

The 14-member rebel delegation objected to the inclusion of Iran, which they said could not be a credible monitor as its proxies on the ground had repeatedly violated the ceasefire.

In particular they singled out Tehran-backed Lebanese Shia militia Hizbollah for carrying out attacks on the Wadi Barada valley outside Damascus, which has been fought over fiercely since the Dec 30 truce came into force. 

"The Russians have moved from a stage of being a party in the fighting and are now exerting efforts to become a guarantor,” Mohammed Alloush, the head of the Syrian opposition delegation, said after the closed-door talks on Tuesday. “They are finding a lot of obstacles from Hizbollah forces, Iran and the regime." 

Iran has a great stake in the war - providing the manpower and resources that have helped Bashar al-Assad’s government. It has bolstered the regime in order to maintain its influence and secure a supply route through the country for Hizbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.

It sees the conflict in Syria as part of a broader Sunni-Shia struggle.

Such a deal seemed difficult to imagine a year ago, when the last peace talks in Geneva collapsed without agreement. 

It is the first time in the six-year-war that the armed rebels and the government had sat in the same room as each other, albeit briefly.

Talks between the two sides have seen greater success with the detente between Russia and Turkey and the sidelining of the United States. Negotiations between Moscow and Washington had been riven by deep divisions and mistrust between the former Cold War foes

Steffan de Mistura, the UN”s envoy to Syria who has been brokering the talks in Astana, had welcomed the idea of a trilateral commission to create accountability. “We didn’t have it in the past, that’s the reason why often we failed.”

The three sponsors also agreed to joint efforts to combat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) and the need for more moderate rebels to distance themselves from Islamist groups. 

But even as talks took place in the Kazakh capital, the situation of the ground was in flux.

Jaish Fateh al-Sham, a jihadist group which formerly had links with al-Qaeda, launched an attack on moderate rebels represented at the talks in Astana. 

The attack by JFS targeted Free Syrian Army groups in northwestern Syria in Idlib, the rebellion's main territorial foothold after the opposition's defeat in Aleppo last month.

JFS surrounding the headquarters of the large rebel faction Jaish al-Mujahideen in Idlib province.

Jaish al-Mujahideen’s commander told Reuters the "extremely fierce" attack aimed to "eliminate the revolution and turn it black", a reference to the black flag flown by the jihadists in Syria.