International Syria Support Group

Turkey has welcomed an agreement between major powers to cease hostilities in Syria to provide humanitarian aid as "an important step" toward resolving the crisis, calling for the opportunity to be seized to pave the way for a political solution to the conflict.

World powers on Feb. 12 agreed an ambitious plan to cease hostilities in war-racked Syria within a week and dramatically ramp up humanitarian access at talks in Munich aimed at reviving the struggling peace process.

Following talks of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) in Munich on Thursday, the participants committed themselves to implementing a nationwide cessation of hostilities in Syria.

The implementation of the ceasefire is set to begin in a week, with the cessation not applying to the fight against jihadist groups such as Islamic State (IS) and the al-Nusra Front.

The U.S.-led coalition will not allow Turkey to realize its "crazy" plans of a full-scale invasion of Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with daily Moskovsky Komsomolets on Feb. 10, according to TASS news agency, adding that Turkey and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were negotiating in secret, discussing new ways of smuggling oil.

Shutting down smuggling across the Turkish-Syrian border is a condition for halting Russia's bombing campaign in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said as peace talks in Geneva began to encounter more difficulty.

It will be difficult to impose a cease-fire unless Syria's border with Turkey is secured to prevent smuggling and the movement of fighters, he said.

Russia will not stop its air strikes on Syria until armed groups, such as al-Qaeda's wing there, are defeated, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Feb. 3. 

On Feb. 2, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Russia should stop bombing opposition forces in Syria now that U.N.-led peace talks have started. 

Russia's bombing campaign in Syria is considered an "aggression," since it targets the moderate opposition groups and civilians rather than the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to Gareth Bayley, the U.K.'s special representative to Syria.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has urged peace and stability can only be fully provided in Syria after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and "blood-guilty" elements of his regime leave the scene, as part of a plan that envisages a road map for a political transition in the war-torn country, which was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council on late Dec. 18. 

The United Nations (UN) Security Council adopted unanimously on Friday a resolution on initiating a process of political transition in Syria.

The resolution gave the UN an enhanced role in guiding the opposing sides to talks for a political transition, with a timetable for ceasefire, a new consitution and elections all under the auspices of the UN.

The United States and Russia agreed to plough on with efforts to halt Syria's brutal civil war, with a fresh round of international crisis talks set for this week in New York.