International News

BEIRUT, (APP/AFP): Washington and Moscow
scrambled to salvage Syria’s shaky ceasefire on Tuesday as the country reeled from militant bombings that killed more than 160 people in President Bashar al-Assad’s coastal heartland.
A regime offensive outside the capital has severely strained an
already fragile nationwide ceasefire between the regime and non-jihadist rebels intended to pave the way for peace talks to end the five-year conflict.
The latest attempts to salvage the truce come after at least 161
people were killed in car bombings and suicide attacks on Monday in the northwestern cities of Jableh and Tartus that were claimed by the Islamic State group.
The US envoy for Syria late Monday urged rebels to respect the
February 27 ceasefire after they gave its brokers — Washington and Moscow — until Tuesday afternoon to stop the advance on rebel bastions outside Damascus.
“We recognise that the CoH (Cessation of Hostilities) is under severe
stress, but believe that to abandon it now would be strategic error,” Michael Ratney said in a statement on Twitter.
“If the armed factions abandoned the CoH, Assad and his supporters
would claim this gives them licence to attack all the opposition forces without international objection.”
Twenty-nine rebel groups had called on Washington and Moscow to force
Assad’s regime “to completely and immediately halt their brutal offensive
against Daraya and Eastern Ghouta” near Damascus.