| Part of a series on the Syrian civil war |
| Syrian peace process |
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Several attempts have been made to broker ceasefires in the Syrian Civil War . [1]
| Part of a series on the Syrian civil war |
| Syrian peace process |
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Several attempts have been made to broker ceasefires in the Syrian Civil War . [1]
Following talks in Munich, the world powers in the International Syria Support Group negotiated a ceasefire between the main parties to the war. [2] On 22 February 2016 the United States and Russia announced the Terms for a Cessation of Hostilities in Syria, pledging "that the cessation of hostilities will be monitored in an impartial and transparent manner and with broad media coverage." [3] On 26 February 2016, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2268 that demanded all parties to comply with the terms [4] of a U.S.-Russian deal on a "cessation of hostilities". [5] The cease-fire started on 27 February 2016 at 00:00 (Damascus time). [6] The ceasefire does not include attacks on UN-designated terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the al-Nusra Front. [7] [8] At the close of February 2016, despite individual clashes, the truce was reported to hold. [9]
In early February 2016, the formal start of the UN-mediated Geneva Syria peace talks [10] and the opposition's protestations [11] notwithstanding, the Syrian government carried on with its offensive operations in the Aleppo Governorate [12] amidst speculations that Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia [13] and the United Arab Emirates, [14] were preparing a military incursion into Syria. [15] [16] The Saudi announcement was welcomed by the United States. [17] Responding to the calls for Russia to stop bombing opposition forces in Syria now that the peace talks had started, Sergey Lavrov speaking in Muscat, Oman, said Russia would not stop its air strikes until Russia defeated "such terrorist organisations as Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIL″; he also stressed the imperative that Syria's border with Turkey be secured to prevent smuggling and the movement of militants. [18] [19] Syria′s deputy prime minister Walid Muallem said that any foreign country′s ground intervention in the Syrian territory without the government's approval would be deemed an act of aggression to be confronted: "Any aggressor will be sent back to their country in wooden boxes, whether they be Saudis or Turks." [20] [21]
On 11 February, it was confirmed that the Syrian Democratic Forces based in the town of Afrin, north-west of Aleppo, had taken a series of towns, including Deir Jamal and al-Qamiya, as well as a former Menagh Military Airbase near the border with Turkey, previously taken by rebels. [22] In retaliation, on 13 February Turkey began a sustained campaign of shelling on SDF positions in the area of Azaz from its territory. [23] [24] [25]
On 14 March 2016, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would be pulling out the "main part" of its military in Syria. Putin also said that Russia's Khmeimim airbase will be kept to control the ceasefire agreements and that its port at Tartus would continue to operate as normal. [26]
According to Western sources, Iran has kept only 700 IRGC advisors in Syria after the ceasefire, but this has not been confirmed. In mid-March, the Ground Forces of Islamic Republic of Iran Army indicated it would send Army commandos and snipers as military advisers to Syria and Iraq, the first formal acknowledgement by Iran of deployment of regular Iranian Army (as opposed to IRGC) forces outside Iran since the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s. [27] [28]
Syrian government with support from Russian and Iranian forces successfully captured Palmyra from the ISIL by the end of March 2016. [29]
FSA and allied Islamist groups captured al-Ra'i from ISIS on April 8. The capture of the town secured an important supply line for the rebels from Turkey near whose border the town is located. [30] ISIL recaptured the town along with six villages on April 11. [31]
By July 2016, this ceasefire had mostly unraveled and violence again escalated. [32]
On 10 September 2016, Russia and U.S. reached a deal on establishing a cease fire between the Syrian Assad government and a US-supported coalition of so-called 'mainstream Syrian opposition rebel groups'. [33]
This ceasefire was backed by the United States and Russia, with the understanding that – if it held for one week – Russia and the United States could begin to plan a joint mission against ISIS and al-Nusra. [2] [34] A notable loophole in the ceasefire meant that it did not apply to attacks against "terrorist targets" – the Russian government has used claims that it was targeting terrorist elements to justify airstrikes against rebel-held areas. [2] The ceasefire went into effect on 12 September, but was poorly adhered to, with the Syrian government continuing bombing and UN humanitarian aid delayed by security concerns and the danger to convoys. [34] [35]
The ceasefire suffered a further set-back 17 September 2016, when a U.S.-British airstrike that they claimed was aimed at ISIL killed 60 Syrian government soldiers, and was on 19 September declared over by the Syrian government, after an airstrike by Syrian or Russian forces hit a Syrian Arab Red Crescent warehouse, killing 14 people and destroying 18 truckloads of food. [36] [34] [37] On 3 October 2016, the U.S. announced suspension of talks with Russia on implementing the agreement, marking the definitive end of the ceasefire deal. [38] [39]
On 28 December 2016, talks between Turkey and Russia in Astana, Kazakhstan have resulted in the two states brokering a nationwide Syrian ceasefire that is due to begin at midnight on 30 December. [40] The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces stated that it would abide with the truce. [41] ISIL, the al-Nusra Front, and the YPG were excluded from the ceasefire, and the following rebel groups signed up for the truce:
However, the Ahrar al-Sham spokesman denied having signed the deal. [42]
Less than 2 hours after the ceasefire was due to be implemented, clashes erupted between the Army of Victory and government forces in the northern Hama Governorate. Rebel-held areas throughout the Idlib Governorate were also reportedly bombed. [41]
On 31 December, several rebel groups declared the truce to be "null and void" if clashes continued. [43]
On 2 January 2017, rebel groups said that they freeze talks about participation in peace conference due to ceasefire violations, referring to Wadi Barada offensive. [44]
According to the United Nations on 6 January 2017, the ceasefire is "largely holding". [45]
On 14 February 2017, the cease-fire between Assad forces and rebels collapsed throughout the country, leading to fresh clashes in various locations and a fresh rebel offensive in Daraa.
The third meeting of the Astana Process talks concluded in Astana on 25 March 2017. [46] All parties that participated remained committed to the ceasefire agreement in place from the second round of Astana talks. [46]
On 4 May 2017, Russia, Iran, and Turkey signed an agreement in Astana to create four "de-escalation zones" in Syria. The four zones include the Idlib Governorate, the northern rebel-controlled parts of the Homs Governorate, the rebel-controlled eastern Ghouta, and the Jordan–Syria border. The agreement was rejected by some rebel groups, [47] and the Democratic Union Party also denounced the deal, saying that the ceasefire zones are "dividing Syria up on a sectarian basis". The ceasefire came into effect on 6 May. [48]
On 9 July 2017, an open-ended cease-fire in southern Syria brokered by the United States, Russia, and Jordan went into effect. [49] The ceasefire covered the governorates of Daraa, Suwayda and Quneitra. [50] The deal was hailed as the first attempt by the U.S. Trump administration at peacemaking in the Syrian civil war. [51]
According to 21 July 2017 report by Fox News, the ceasefire was mainly holding, albeit with flaws. [52]
In early October 2017, Heather Nauert of U.S. Department of State said the ceasefire ″[wa]s still holding″. [53]
The ceasefire collapsed in late November 2024 after the Southern Operations Room started an uprising in southern Syria and an offensive towards Damascus amidst the Syrian opposition offensives leading to the fall of the Assad regime. [54]
The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided conflict in Syria involving various state-sponsored and non-state actors. In March 2011, popular discontent with the rule of Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. After months of crackdown by the government's security apparatus, various armed rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army began forming across the country, marking the beginning of the Syrian insurgency. By mid-2012, the insurgency had escalated into a full-blown civil war.
This is a broad timeline of the course of major events of the Syrian civil war. It only includes major territorial changes and attacks and does not include every event.
The Syrian peace process is the ensemble of initiatives and plans to resolve the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011 and spilled beyond its borders. The peace process was moderated by the Arab League, the UN Special Envoy on Syria, Russia and Western powers. The negotiating parties were representatives of the Syrian Ba'athist government and Syrian opposition. The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria was excluded at the insistence of Turkey. Radical Salafist forces including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have not engaged in any contacts on peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Foreign involvement in the Syrian civil war refers to political, military and operational support to parties involved in the ongoing conflict in Syria that began in March 2011, as well as active foreign involvement. Most parties involved in the war in Syria receive various types of support from foreign countries and entities based outside Syria. The ongoing conflict in Syria is widely described as a series of overlapping proxy wars between the regional and world powers, primarily between the United States and Russia as well as between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The U.S.–Russia peace proposals on Syria refers to several American–Russian initiatives, including joint United States–Russia proposal issued in May 2013 to organize a conference for obtaining a political solution to the Syrian Civil War. The conference was eventually mediated by Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations peace envoy for Syria.
On 22 September 2014, the United States officially intervened in the Syrian civil war with the stated aim of fighting the terrorist organization ISIS in support of the international war against it, code named Operation Inherent Resolve. The US currently continues to support the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces opposed to both the Islamic State and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Turkey's involvement in the Syrian civil war began diplomatically and later escalated militarily. Initially, Turkey condemned the Syrian government at the outbreak of civil unrest in Syria during the spring of 2011; the Turkish government's involvement gradually evolved into military assistance for the Free Syrian Army in July 2011, border clashes in 2012, and direct military interventions in 2016–17, in 2018, in 2019, 2020, and in 2022. The military operations have resulted in the Turkish occupation of northern Syria since August 2016.
The 2015 Zabadani ceasefire agreement between Syrian opposition forces and the Syrian Armed Forces was achieved on 24 September 2015, with mediation from the United Nations, following the Battle of Zabadani (2015). The agreement was fulfilled in April 2017.
On 30 September 2015, Russia launched a military intervention in Syria after a request by the government of Bashar al-Assad for military support in its fight against the Syrian opposition and Islamic State (IS) in the Syrian civil war. The intervention was kick-started by extensive air strikes across Syria, focused on attacking opposition strongholds of the Free Syrian Army along with the rebel coalition of the Revolutionary Command Council and Sunni militant groups under the Army of Conquest coalition. In line with Syrian government propaganda which denounces all armed resistance to its rule as "terrorism"; Syrian military chief Ali Abdullah Ayoub depicted Russian airstrikes as facilitating their campaign against terrorism. Russian special operations forces, military advisors and private military contractors like the Wagner Group were also sent to Syria to support the Assad regime, which was on the verge of collapse. Prior to the intervention, Russian involvement had been heavily invested in providing Assad with diplomatic cover and propping up the Syrian Armed Forces with billions of dollars of arms and equipment. In December 2017, the Russian government announced that its troops would be deployed to Syria permanently.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to April 2016. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The Geneva peace talks on Syria, also known as Geneva III, were intended peace negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition in Geneva under the auspices of the UN. Although formally started on 1 February 2016, they were formally suspended only two days later, on 3 February 2016.
Operation Euphrates Shield was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces in the Syrian Civil War which led to the Turkish occupation of northern Syria. Operations were carried out in the region between the Euphrates river to the east and the rebel-held area around Azaz to the west. The Turkish military and Turkey-aligned Syrian rebel groups, some of which used the Free Syrian Army label, fought against the forces of the Islamic State (IS) as well as against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from 24 August 2016. On 29 March 2017, the Turkish military officially announced that Operation Euphrates Shield was "successfully completed".
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from September to December 2016. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to April 2017. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
Safe zones, de-escalation zones or no-fly zones have been proposed or created at various points during the Syrian civil war which began in 2011, including "de-escalation zones" agreed between the Turkish and Russian powers backing various belligerent parties and no-fly zones proposed in the Kurdish Northeast and rebel Northwest of the country.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from May to August 2017. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from September to December 2017. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to April 2018. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The Idlib demilitarization was an agreement between Turkey and Russia to create a demilitarized zone (DMZ) in Syria's rebel-held Idlib Governorate, to be patrolled by military forces from Russia and Turkey. On 17 September 2018, the Russian president Vladimir Putin and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, reached an agreement to create a buffer zone in Idlib.
The following events occurred during the 2010s in the political history of Syria.
