Russia’s 4 Syrian ceasefire zones

The widely reported Kremlin plan to set up four safe or “de-escalation” zones, that were supposed to have gone into effect in Syria Friday night, May 5, turns out to be nothing but a propaganda ploy. The spin factor leaps to the eye from the small print of the plan that was released by Gen. Sergey Rudskoy, head of Russian General Staffs Operations Division, Friday night.  He outlined four steps that may never take off
1. Observation points will be set up to monitor the ceasefire (in the four designated de-escalation zones).
So when the putative safe zones were to have started operating Friday night, there were no observation points to monitor them.
2. The boundaries of the zones will be determined in accordance with the observation points.
This means that the zones don’t exist.
3. By June 4, a working team made up of officers of the three guarantors, Russia, Turkey and Iran, will be created to administer the observation points.
Who can tell what will happen in Syrian in a month’s time.
4. Only after the observation groups of the three sponsor-nations’ armies finish mapping the ceasefire zones can it be determined whether the plan is doable or not.
Still no zones.

 

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