The Russian task force in Syria has demonstrated remarkable efficiency and professionalism, according to a German magazine citing confidential NATO analysis. The limited Russian contingent operating in Syria is outperforming the more widespread groupings of the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition, according to Germany’s FOCUS media outlet who came by the classified NATO document, which was pr [...]

Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorists have pitched their camps right next to the border and receive regular supplies from the Turkish side, Syrian Kurdish forces told RT’s Lizzie Phelan, who traveled with YPG to investigate suspicious activity there. [...]

The response of Western governments and of the Western media to the Russian air operation in Syria was unanimous. All of them condemned it and all of them said it would fail. In the US there was much gloating talk — joined in by President Obama himself — about how the Russians had landed themselves in a quagmire. [...]

A Russian TV crew has managed to obtain video proof of Turkey’s increased military presence on the Syrian border, as it filmed fortifications and tanks on the frontier. The lodgments are heavily fortified by tanks and self-propelled guns, REN-TV crew reported from the scene. [...]

Turkey’s “provocative” military buildup on the border and shelling of the Syrian territory could thwart the truce and disrupt the peace process in the Arab Republic, said the head of the Russian ceasefire monitoring center Lt. Gen. Sergey Kuralenko. [...]

The Obama administration, eager to assuage Saudi Arabia’s anger over the Iran nuclear deal and the failure to achieve “regime change” in Syria, has turned a blind eye to Riyadh’s savaging of Yemen, even though that is helping Al Qaeda militants expand their territory, writes Jonathan Marshall. For nearly a year, the Obama administration has turned a blind eye to the humanitarian catastr [...]

Russia’s military have stopped all airstrikes on those areas and armed groups which joined the ceasefire in Syria, the General Staff has said at a briefing. "Russia has fully stopped carrying out airstrikes in the green zone - those areas and armed units that have sent us requests for a ceasefire," the chief of the main operations department of the Russian General Staff, Sergey Rudskoy, has t [...]

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has lashed out at remarks recently made by the US State Department’s deputy spokesman, who urged Russia to “put up or shut up” over Syria’s truce, calling them rude and offensive. [...]

With the Syrian ceasefire set to take effect on Saturday, journalist Steven Sahiounie tells Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear about the situation on the ground, and describes Syrians’ hesitations about the United States’ true intentions. "There is hope, but on one condition: that the American government and their allies put pressure on Saudi Arabia and Turkey to stop their militants on the [...]

Moscow is not discussing alternative plans for a political settlement in Syria, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has said. The Russian-American peace initiative is going to be formalized through a UN Security Council resolution. “We’re perplexed by our Western partners, the US included, mentioning the existence of some kind of ‘Plan B,’ Nothing is known on that one, we are consi [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has held phone talks on the ceasefire plan brokered by Moscow and Washington with the Syrian president and Saudi king, as well the leaders of Israel and Iran. Vladimir Putin and Bashar Assad held a phone conversation on Wednesday and “discussed various aspects of the Syrian crisis in the light of realization of the Russian-American declaration on cessation of [...]

The US media coverage of the Syrian war is completely divorced from reality, award-winning American author and foreign correspondent Stephen Kinzer writes, adding that much of the US press is reporting the opposite of what is actually happening on the ground. Americans have almost no real information about what is going on in Syria, and much of the blame for this lies with US mainstream media, [...]

US State Department spokesperson John Kirby said that the United States encourages opposition groups in Syria to take part in ceasefire agreed on under US-Russia deal on Monday. The United States encourages opposition groups in Syria to take part in ceasefire agreed on under US-Russia deal on Monday, US State Department spokesperson John Kirby said in a press release. [...]

While terrorists rage in Syria and beyond, with many countries trying to unite their efforts in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Ankara's blame game looks more like an untimely joke, Moscow says. "Mr. Davutoglu [Turkish Prime Minister], are you serious or is it just the way you joke? [...]

The Syrian ceasefire accords, signed in Munich, have laid bare the impotence of Washington regarding the ongoing civil war, and have proved that resolving the almost five-year conflict depends on Russian interests in the region, international affairs observer Marc Champion wrote, in an opinion column for Bloomberg View. [...]

Turkey's Erdogan should come to terms with the "stark reality" that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will not fall anytime soon, former senior CIA official Graham E. Fuller notes, stressing that Erdogan's personal interests are not synonymous with Turkey’s national interests. Ankara is faced with the dilemma of choosing between pursuing its present foreign policy and returning to the more pea [...]

A part of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) will not participate in the ceasefire deal unless al-Nusra Front is involved, a commander of Ahrar ash-Sham militants said Tuesday. On Monday, Russia and the United States announced an agreement on cessation of hostilities between the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad and the armed opposition factions had been reached. The agreement will come into [...]

Further proof of ties between the Turkish military and Islamic State fighters operating on the Syrian-Turkish border has been revealed in the Cumhuriyet newspaper, which published more transcripts of telephone calls between the jihadists and officers. The documents are said to come from an ongoing court case on Islamic State at the Ankara 3rd High Criminal Court. [...]

The Syrian government has accepted the terms of a ceasefire deal announced by the US and Russia, a foreign ministry source said, as cited by Sana news agency. But Damascus wants the fight against terrorists such as Islamic State to continue. [...]