01 February 2017•Update: 02 February 2017
By Ahmed al-Masri
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates
A "tripartite mechanism" established by Russia, Turkey and Iran to monitor the ceasefire in Syria has come into force, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"The ceasefire is largely holding," Lavrov told the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum, which convened in UAE capital Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
One month ago, a ceasefire deal brokered by Turkey and Russia went into effect throughout war-torn Syria.
"Russia, Turkey and Iran have established a mechanism that allows them to monitor implementation of the truce," Lavrov was quoted as saying in Abu Dhabi by Russia’s TASS news agency.
"In line with our position, all armed opposition groups [in Syria] were invited to participate in the ceasefire and political talks," he said.
Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
At the forum in Abu Dhabi, Lavrov also said Russia was helping the Iraqi army in its ongoing military campaign against the Daesh terrorist group.
"We are assisting in this struggle by supplying Iraq with Russian weapons and military equipment and augmenting the Iraqi armed forces’ combat capabilities," he said.
The Iraqi military is currently engaged in a wide-ranging offensive to recapture the northern city of Mosul, which Daesh overran -- along vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq -- in mid-2014.
The Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum was first held in Moscow in 2013 to discuss means of promoting cooperation between Russia and Arab countries.
