WarSclerotic

Turkey is strengthening its military positions on the border with Syria and is concentrating armored vehicles in the area, Lieutenant General Kuralenko said, denouncing these moves as “obviously provocative steps that could lead to a breakdown of the ceasefire and the peace process in the Syrian Arab Republic.”

The Russian military has examined footage taken by a Russian TV crew near the Syrian city of Tel Abyad located not far from the Turkish border, which demonstrated Ankara’s military “organizing firing positions and concentrating armored vehicles near the border,” Kuralenko said.

Meanwhile Turkish artillery fired at least 50 rounds at alleged Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) targets north of Aleppo as part of the US-led coalition’s offensive, according to local media reports.

The truce in Syria is generally being observed, the Lt. Gen. added, noting however that terrorist groups shelled populated areas at least seven times on Monday.

“In general, the truce between the governmental troops and the opposition forces on the territory of the Syrian Arab republic holds,” he said adding that a Russian center in Latakia monitors the situation in the six Syrian provinces of Hama, Homs, Latakia, Damascus, Aleppo and Deraa on a 24-hour basis.

“Within the last 24 hours, officers from the Russian [ceasefire monitoring] center as well as Syrian government forces and self-defense forces recorded seven cases of terrorist groups shelling Syrian residential areas,” he told journalists.

Kuralenko said that Al-Nusra militants attacked Syrian Kurdish positions in Aleppo province using artillery, while IS terrorists continued shelling the road between the cities of Hama and Aleppo, making the “delivery of humanitarian aid to Aleppo and nearby provinces impossible.”

The Lieutenant General stressed that governmental forces and the opposition achieved “significant progress” in the reconciliation process in four Syrian provinces, although he did not mention them by name.

The head of the Russian ceasefire monitoring center also discussed the first results of the truce with his US counterpart and they both expressed satisfaction with the joint efforts. “We discussed the first results of the ceasefire and signified satisfaction with the concerted efforts,” Kuralenko told journalists referring to a telephone conversation with representatives of the US ceasefire monitoring center in Amman.

In the meantime, Russian aircraft carried out several air strikes against Al-Nusra front militants to “stabilize the situation” in the regions north of the city of Aleppo, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Al-Nusra extremists were shelling the Syrian army positions from the Narb-Nafsa village located north of Aleppo. In response, Russian Air Space Forces “carried out missile and bomb attacks against… Al Nusra units in the region and hit positions of terrorists near Narb-Nafsa…” the statement said.

At the same time, the Russian ceasefire monitoring center once again stressed that Russian aircraft conducted no strikes against the groups which joined the truce.

Secretary of State John Kerry said that Moscow and Washington have worked out a mechanism to track down all reported violations of the ceasefire in Syria through specially set up teams in Geneva and Amman. Kerry specified that he and Lavrov agreed that the mechanism should ensure that any strikes in Syria target only Islamic State and Al Nusra Front.

“We are going to track down each alleged violation and work even more now to put in place a construct which will help us to guarantee that missions are indeed missions against Nusra or missions against Daesh [the Arabic name for IS],” Kerry said at a news conference with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“We’re perplexed by our Western partners, the US included, mentioning the existence of some kind of ‘Plan B,’ Nothing is known on that one, we are considering no alternative plans,” Bognanov told the ‘Middle East: From violence to security’ conference in Moscow.

On February 22, Russian and American presidents simultaneously announced that an agreement on peaceful plan for Syria had been reached, coming into force on February 27, at midnight Damascus time.

Terrorist organizations such as Islamic State and Al-Nusra Front are not included in the ceasefire and will continue to be attacked until their complete annihilation, the Russian president said in a statement dedicated to the Syrian truce.

Commenting on the ambiguous so-called “Plan B” mentioned by US Secretary of State John Kerry, President Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Russia’s priority remains “carrying out the plan, the initiative that has been voiced by the two presidents [Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama].”

Damascus has no idea about an American “Plan B” either, said Bouthaina Shaaban, a political and media adviser to the President Assad.

“I don’t know whether these [Plan B] statements were made to apply pressure [on Damascus], anyway, it should not be put on the Syrian government, which has agreed on the Russian-American initiative,” Shaaban told RT.

The roadmap for bringing end to violence in Syria is going to be put on paper at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Mikhail Bogdanov also said.

Such a document, possibly formalized as a UNSC resolution, is likely to be ready “within days,” a high-ranking Russian diplomat said.

Moscow is concerned with the declared intentions to create a buffer zone on the Turkish-Syrian border and attempts to pull together a military bloc for a ground invasion into Syria. The aims and international legitimacy of such plans raise “grave concern,” the diplomat said.

The Deputy FM also referred to the idea promoted by President Vladimir Putin about forming a “broad antiterrorist front” with the central role of the UNSC and participation of Syrian and Iraqi armies, Kurdish self-defense forces, armed patriotic Syrian opposition and involvement of the regional and global players.

“The developments [in Syria] show that the necessity for a broad front is only growing,” Bogdanov said.

All armed groups that want to join the ceasefire agreement are due to lodge a request by noon, February 26. Mikhail Bogdanov acknowledged that such requests from the Syrian oppositions indeed have been filed.

Moscow does work with Damascus to ensure introduction of the armistice and expects Washington to do the same with the US allies and opposition groups Washington has influence on, Bogdanov stressed.

The diplomat also hopes that Russian and American militaries will define collectively the areas, where armed groups that comply with the ceasefire agreement are operating, to add them to a no-strike list