Ali Akbar Velayati
© www.topnews.inThe Doubter
Iranian Supreme Leader's Top Adviser for International Affairs Ali Akbar Velayati raised doubt about Washington's real intentions in supporting the current ceasefire in Syria. "The Americans don't have good intentions for supporting the Syrian ceasefire. They seek to affect regime change in Damascus," Velayati told reporters in Tehran on Tuesday.

He said the current ceasefire is a pretext to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad, adding that a UN resolution supporting truce in Syria is unprecedented. Stressing that the future of Syria should be decided by its people, Velayati said the UN and outside powers have no right to make decision for the Syrian people.

Crooke
© www.middleeastmonitor.comAlastair Crooke, Timeout
In relevant remarks on Monday, former MI6 agent and EU foreign policy adviser Alastair Crooke said the cessation of hostilities in Syria almost certainly does not mean the end of the Syrian war, as US, Turkish and Saudi proxies are using the timeout to regroup, rearm and prepare. The Syrian ceasefire deal, brokered between the US and Russia, almost certainly will not last long and definitely does not mean the end of the war on the ground, Alastair Crooke, former MI6 agent, who was Middle East advisor to Javier Solana, High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union (CFSP) from 1997 to 2003, said.

The British diplomat analyzed the possible intentions of the parties of the deal. "And one of the intentions is to have a break, a pause, I think, so that your own proxies — the American, Turkish, Saudi proxies — can regroup, can rearm and prepare," he therefore suggested. "In a sense, this is a timeout, which is why I said that I don't think this is the beginning of the end."

"I think there is another chapter in this, and what we are going to see and why are they doing this, is because precisely they want to rearm, to push back the rapid advance that is taking place across Syria of the coalition forces led by Syrian army, and to stop that progress, in order to give them position to continue their negotiations, in order to have something in their hand to negotiate with."

At the moment, Crooke explained, for the rebels, the negotiating hand is vanishing day by day and if the Syrian forces reach Raqqa, they will have almost nothing. Their major purpose is stopping the government forces getting to Raqqa, because then what's there to negotiate about? The negotiations are taking place on the ground, in the battlefield, Idlib and Aleppo in the North of Syria, he suggested.