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Russia, U.S. agree on system to monitor Syrian ceasefire: Russian FM

Xinhua, April 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed Monday that Moscow and Washington have approved a system to monitor the cessation of combat actions in Syria.

"It is practically being implemented daily, during the regular contacts between the authorities of the Russian military base in Hmeimim and the U.S. soldiers in Amman (Jordanian capital)," Lavrov told reporters.

During a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Lavrov said that moderate Syrian opposition forces should leave the positions controlled by terrorist groups.

According to the minister, the early pullout of opposition forces could block the channels for extremists trying to reinforce themselves.

"We have agreed with the Americans that they would use their influence on these 'good opposition members' and withdraw them, so that no one could impede to destroy Jabhat al-Nusra," Lavrov said in a transcript on the ministry's website.

He warned that the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra was trying to subdue the groups that seemed to have joined the ceasefire.

On the ongoing intra-Syrian talks in Geneva, Lavrov said they would continue, although some representatives of the Saudi-backed Syrian opposition, the Riyadh group, have left.

"The situation during the talks in Geneva could have been much better if one delegation of the opposition had not left Geneva, as they say, temporarily," Lavrov said.

The minister called on all Syrian forces not to "slam the door and strike an attitude" with regard to the drafting of a new constitution and other political issues aimed at resolving the Syrian crisis.

Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed concern over the deterioration of the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva, which are still continuing despite the pullout of a delegation of Syria's main opposition, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), from formal negotiations.

The failure of reaching common political ground between the Syrian government and the opposition has sparked a new wave of violence, threatening the already-shaky truce imposed on Syria in February. Endi