The one success the White House could legitimately point to coming out of the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Germany last week was an announced ceasefire agreement in Syria:
After the meeting concluded, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who was also present at the meeting, said that the US, Russia and Jordan have issued a joint memorandum on establishing a de-escalation zone in southwest Syria, in the regions of Daraa, Quneitra and Suwayda.
A ceasefire will come into effect in this de-escalation zone starting at noon Damascus time on July 9.
The US and Russia "promised to ensure that all groups there comply with the ceasefire" and "provide humanitarian access" Lavrov said. Russian military police -- coordinating with the US and Jordan -- will initially ensure security around the de-escalation zone.
Notice the details quoted from the CNN article are coming from the Russian Foreign Minister. No details were released by the White House. Although Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the ceasefire a “defined agreement,” the devil is in the details and a State Department official said they’ll sort it out soon:
A State Department official said Friday that they're still working on how they're going to monitor and enforce the ceasefire.
In other words, they have no defined plan for a legitimate ceasefire. Although the ceasefire went into effect yesterday, Buzzfeed has confirmed that U.S. military officials have also been left in the dark on specifics:
The US military has received no guidance on how to enforce the ceasefire now in place in southwest Syria, even as the Trump administration hails it as a success, three Defense Department officials told BuzzFeed News on Monday.
US military officials said they don’t have any formal role in the ceasefire, in monitoring it or enforcing it in any way. It is unclear if the US military is collecting intelligence in the area that might be useful in highlighting violations.
“You’d think we would be a part of it,” one US military official explained.
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