Syria truce set for sundown but opposition seeks 'guarantees'

An internationally brokered ceasefire in Syria was due to begin at sundown today but, with only hours to go, the country's opposition forces had yet to sign on.
In a further sign of the deal's fragility, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad vowed to retake the whole country from "terrorists".
The deal, announced on Friday after marathon talks between Russia and the United States, has been billed as the best chance yet to halt the bloodshed in Syria's five-year civil war.
As well as bringing a temporary end to the fighting, it aims to provide crucial aid to hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians.

Under the agreement, an initial 48-hour ceasefire is to begin at 7:00 pm local time (1600 GMT), halting fighting in areas not held by jihadists like the Islamic State group.
Aid deliveries to many besieged and "hard-to-reach" areas are set to simultaneously begin, with government and rebel forces ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access in particular to divided Aleppo city.

The ceasefire will be renewed every 48 hours and, if it holds for a week, Moscow and Washington will begin unprecedented joint targeting of jihadist forces.
After years of stalled peace efforts and the failure of a landmark truce agreed in February, world powers are anxious to end a conflict that has killed more than 290,000 people.

Russia's deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov told state-run news agency RIA Novosti that peace talks could resume within a month.
"I think that probably at the very beginning of October, (UN envoy Staffan) de Mistura should be inviting all parties" to talks, he said.
But Syria's opposition and rebels are deeply sceptical that Assad's regime will abide by the truce agreement, and demanded guarantees before endorsing a deal.
"We are asking for guarantees especially from the United States, which is a party to the agreement," Salem al-Muslet from the High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition umbrella group, told AFP Monday.

"We fear that Russia will classify all the Free Syrian Army (rebel factions) as terrorists," as it was unclear how the deal defined "terrorist groups", he said.
Rebel groups on Sunday sent a letter to the US saying they would "deal positively with the idea of the ceasefire" but listed several "concerns" and stopped short of a full endorsement.
"The clauses of the agreement that have been shared with us do not include any clear guarantees or monitoring mechanisms or repercussions if there are truce violations," they said.