Spotlight: Syrian ceasefire long way off though Assad says ready

Syrian President Bashar Assad said that his government is ready for a ceasefire with opposition forces in the almost five-year-old armed conflict, but many more rifts must be mended before such an agreement can be clinched.

In a recent interview with a Spanish newspaper, El Pais, Assad said that his condition for a ceasefire is that the "terrorists" don't exploit it to enhance their own position, according to Syria's official news agency, which published the full script Saturday.

Assad said Turkey may also take advantage of the ceasefire to send "terrorists and arms" into Syria.

In the interview, Assad's tone considerably softened compared to that in an AFP interview released on Feb.12.

In the AFP interview he vowed to recapture the whole of Syria, including the Eastern province of Raqqa and the Northern province of Idlib, which are controlled by the Islamic State (IS) and the Nusra Front respectively.

Observers believe the change in rhetoric was due to a senior Russian diplomat's warning that Assad may risk losing its long-time ally's support if he does not align his targets with that of Russia's.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia's envoy to the United Nations (U.N.), said Friday Assad faced serious consequences if he did not comply with Moscow over the peace process.

"Russia has invested very seriously in this crisis, politically, diplomatically and now also militarily," Churkin said, adding that the Kremlin would like to see Assad to respond accordingly.

The rare criticism comes at a delicate time when Russia and the United States, main backers of the opposite warring sides of the Syrian conflict, are inching closer to a consensus to contain the crisis.

The two countries, which organized the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), have agreed to a ceasefire on Feb.12 during a meeting in Munich, and have been hammering out the details ever since.

Although momentum of a peace process has started gathering, risks of a escalation still exist as regional countries, driven by self interests, may decide to rogue.

Unlike Russia, which holds strong sway in Syria's policies, the United States has had a hard time persuading Turkey and Saudi Arabia, two major allies in the region, to come to the table.

Saudi Arabia have been threatening to send combat troops to Syria, in addition to its ongoing campaign in Yemen, while Turkey has already started shelling IS-fighting Kurdish positions in Northern Syria.

The IS-fighting Kurds belong to the People's Protection Unit (YPG), the military arm of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

Turkey said the PYD has links to the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), a Kurdish group in Turkey that is considered by Ankara a terror group, while the United States said it sees no evidence that the Syrian Kurds and Turkish Kurds are working together.

Washington's stance drew ire from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who openly questioned the United States whether it stood with Turkey or the terrorists.

The deep rifts between world powers and regional players have seriously undermined the peace process, as the third round of U.N.-brokered talks, which broke down early this month and was scheduled to resume on Feb. 25, has been postponed. Endi