Syria truce to remain secret

According to Mark Toner – the main spokesperson for the US State Department – the terms of the US-Russian brokered deal behind a temporary ceasefire in Syria will not be released to the public.

In a briefing today Toner told media that the bilateral arrangement with the Russians deals with,

sensitive issues that we believe, if made public, could potentially be misused to misinterpreted or used by – I know Secretary [John] Kerry talked about the spoilers or would-be spoilers of this. He also suggested that secrecy served the interests of keeping opposition groups safe from attack by Russian-backed regime forces.

Also commenting on the state of the truce White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that there had been little progress in terms of access for humanitarian aid,

Despite the progress that we’d seen with regard to the security situation on the ground in Syria, we haven’t seen the corresponding improvement in the flow of humanitarian assistance. And the chief obstacle to that has been the Assad regime,

Yet the need for progress on the issue of aid remains urgent.

There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Syrians, who are in a desperate situation. And right now, the trucks that could bring them lifesaving assistance are idling on the wrong side of the border

If the truce – which was recently extended by 48 hours – holds for a week the US and Russia will start coordinating joint operations against Daesh and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which was – until recently – know as Jabhat al-Nusra and an Al Qaeda affiliate.