America demands UN supervision of peace in Syria, Erdogan and Putin discuss the file

Washington demanded that the United Nations be given the authority to monitor any ceasefire agreement in Syria, during a session of the Security Council to discuss the resumption of the peace track there, as Turkish Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian Vladimir Putin discussed the file by phone.

"It has become increasingly clear that Bashar al-Assad's regime is determined to take advantage of the Corona crisis for its political and military interests ... We must collectively ask how the Security Council can help restore stability to Syria," said Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, Ambassador Kelly Kraft - on Monday.

Kraft added - during a session of the UN Security Council on the Syrian crisis through a television - that the answer lies in strengthening all tracks of Resolution 2254, and that the Council should make its effort to ensure that the Assad regime reflects its behavior and agree to a comprehensive and lasting verifiable ceasefire.

Kraft also stressed that the United Nations must be at the heart of any effort to establish a ceasefire, and that the UN special envoy other than Pederson have the authority to monitor lines of communication, to ensure respect for the ceasefire.

The US ambassador called on the Syrian regime to immediately release all detainees arbitrarily, warning that inhuman conditions in prisons significantly increase the risk of contracting the Coronavirus.

In turn, Biderson said at the session that Idlib governorate is witnessing a relative calm this month, thanks to Russian-Turkish cooperation on the ground in accordance with the ceasefire agreement.

And Biderson said that this calm was punctuated by violent incidents, warning of "avoiding a return to all-out fighting and the violations that we have seen before."

He considered it important to unify the efforts of the Astana track, which includes Turkey, Iran and Russia, with the efforts of the small group that includes Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, under the auspices of the United Nations.

Biderson called for the resumption of full international cooperation and confidence building between the international parties and the Syrians, and said, "I believe that the Russian-American dialogue plays a major role in this."

The UN official called for the convening of a third session of the mini-commission for the Constitutional Committee in Geneva, as soon as global travel conditions allow it, explaining that resolving the crisis is not limited to developing a new constitution.

Resolution 2254 of December 18, 2015 calls on all parties to immediately stop launching attacks against civilian targets, and urges Security Council members to support efforts to achieve a ceasefire.

Sources in the Turkish presidency said that Erdogan discussed the Syrian file by phone with Putin, in addition to discussing bilateral relations and regional affairs, ways to combat the Coruna virus, and the steps that will be taken after the end of the struggle against the virus.

Prisoners and IDPs
Meanwhile, a prisoner exchange took place today between the Syrian National Army (the opposition) and the regime forces in Idlib governorate, where, according to local sources, the operation included three fighters from the Legion of the Levant in exchange for a fighter and a "proxy" affiliated with the regime, and the bodies of two members of militia affiliated For Iran.

Also in the north of the country, the director of the Civil Response Coordinators team, Muhammad Hallaj, said that 271,000 displaced people have returned to their areas in Idlib and Aleppo provinces, since the ceasefire agreement between Turkey and Russia came into effect on March 6.

Hallaj added that a large part of the displaced are still living in camps near the Turkish border, and refuse to return to their towns as long as the regime controls them, but the fear of the spread of Corona has motivated people to leave the crowded camps and return to their homes.

More than a million civilians were displaced from Idlib, in light of the military operation launched by the Syrian regime and its allies in the province last November.