Russia, Iran, and Turkey signed a memorandum Thursday to create four safe “de-escalation zones’’ in Syria, which if successful would be one of the most far-reaching steps to halt bloodshed in a war now in its seventh year.
The memorandum, circulated in advance by Russia at cease-fire talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, is rife with ambiguities. Some rebel representatives at the talks denounced the agreement as inadequate.
But the top United Nations envoy dealing with the conflict, Staffan de Mistura, who also was at the talks, called the memorandum an “important, promising positive step in the right direction.’’ It was a significant endorsement from a diplomat who has struggled mightily to bring antagonists together for peace talks that have made no progress.
Russia and Iran are the main allies of President Bashar Assad of Syria, and Turkey is a major backer of some of the important armed insurgent groups that oppose him.
Under the memorandum they signed as guarantors of a cease-fire, fighting between government forces and insurgents is to stop in four zones that include rebel-held territory in the north, central, and southern parts of the country.
It remains unclear precisely how the guarantors will monitor compliance with what they are calling “de-escalation zones.’’
Aleksandr Lavrentyev, the Russian negotiator at the Astana talks, was quoted by Russian news media as saying Russia was prepared to send observers to these zones and “work more closely’’ with other countries that back the rebels, including the United States and Saudi Arabia.
There was no immediate comment from the United States, which sent an emissary to the Astana talks after a telephone conversation Tuesday between President Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who vowed to renew efforts to collaborate on ending the Syria conflict.
The zones exclude any areas held by the Islamic State group and a Qaeda affiliate commonly known as the Nusra Front, extremist groups that are not participating in the talks and that have been targeted in aerial assaults by the forces of Russia and the United States.
Osama Abu Zeid, a spokesman for some of the rebel groups at the Astana talks, said in a statement that they had rejected the memorandum partly because creation of the zones implied a fragmentation of the country and the pact contained no guarantee of “the unity of the Syrian territory.’’
Zeid also said the groups he represented opposed any role as a cease-fire guarantor for Iran and the pro-Assad militias it supports because “they are aggressors.’’
Lavrentyev said at a news conference in Astana that the agreement would go into effect Saturday and that the Syrian air force was expected to avoid the protected zones.
He also said the Syrian government would abide by the agreement, unless rebel groups carried out attacks in the zones — ambiguous language that critics called a loophole that allows violations committed by Assad’s side.
Many of Assad’s opponents in the conflict say the Syrian government has no credibility to honor any cease-fire agreement because it has violated all previous such pacts since the conflict began in March 2011.
