Washington preferred Syria deal provisions stay confidential - Lavrov

Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow suggested publishing the provisions of the Syria ceasefire agreement signed by Russia and the US in full, but the latter refused to.

In a joint press conference with Luxembourg’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean Asselborn, on Tuesday, Lavrov said that Moscow wanted to publish the provisions of the agreement in full, make the provisions public, and adopt the agreement as a UNSC resolution. Washington, however, still preferred that the provisions stay confidential.

Moscow fears that some sides are tending to cross out Jabhat al-Nusra organization, which changed its name to Jabhat Fatth al-Sham recently, from the international Foreign Terrorist Organizations list. Thus, saving it from being targeted as the Russian-US Syria deal is implemented, Lavrov added.

It is worthy to mention that Washington only sent an abstract of the deal to opposition fighters’ factions and Syrian political opposition, while most of them issued statements, agreeing on the truce with some reservations and rejecting the targeting of Jabhat Fatth al-Sham.

The deal, which entered into force on Monday at sundown, provided that Jabhat Fatth al-Sham and ISIS are excluded from the ceasefire and will be targeted by US and Russian air force, without the participation of Assad warplanes.