Michael Sercan Daventry
12 September 2016•Update: 13 September 2016
LONDON
The U.S.-Russian cease-fire plan for Syria due to take effect on Monday has a better short-term chance of holding than ever before, International Rescue Committee (IRC) chief David Miliband said.
But Miliband, a former U.K. foreign secretary, said the truce depended in the long term on the stance of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
The IRC is among the aid agencies preparing to send additional medical supplies and food to Syria, particularly to the besieged city of Aleppo, once the truce takes effect at sunset on Monday.
Speaking to BBC radio on Monday morning, Miliband said: "The indications are certainly that there is a better short-term chance of a decent lull in the fighting than has ever happened before.
"The degree of Russian engagement seems to be of a much greater order than of any of the previous cease-fire attempts."
But he added it was going to be a "much more tricky enterprise" in the longer term because it would involve the United States and Russia setting up a joint command center to target Daesh.
"The great difficulty is going to come down to the future of President Assad, because obviously in the West he is perceived as someone who has not just murdered many of his own citizens but has radicalized those who are still there.
"On the Russia side they see him as the great hope. And there is nothing in this agreement that gets over that fundamental division," he said.
Miliband's comments came as Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed both UN agencies and the Turkish Red Crescent would be sending food, toys and clothing to people in Aleppo and beyond once the truce takes effect.
Early Saturday, the U.S. and Russia agreed to take steps to reduce violence in war-torn Syria, namely a truce that is supposed to take effect Monday evening.
