The Syrian government and the main umbrella for Syrian opposition and rebel groups announced Tuesday their conditional acceptance of a proposed U.S.-Russian cease fire that the international community hopes will bring them back to the negotiating table in Geneva for talks to end the war.
The announcement came after the United States and Russia agreed on a new cease-fire for Syria that will take effect Saturday, even as major questions over enforcement were left unresolved.
The Syrian announcement came after the main umbrella for Syrian opposition and rebel groups, the High Negotiations Committee, said late Monday that it “agrees to a temporary truce” as long as the main opposition’s demands are met.
The HNC said the “acceptance of the truce is conditional” to the Syrian government ending its siege of 18 rebel-held areas, releasing detainees and the cessation of aerial and artillery bombardment.
It was not immediately clear if de Mistura will set a new date for the resumption of the talks that were scheduled to resume on Thursday.
The truce will not cover militias designated as terrorist organizations by the U.N. Security Council. But where in Syria the fighting must stop and where counterterrorism operations can continue must still be addressed. And the five-page plan released by the U.S. State Department leaves open how breaches of the cease-fire will be identified or punished.

Source: Associated Press,23 Feb 2016