The move represents Obama's America giving up on their hopes for regime change in Damascus.
The UN Security Council has just unanimously passed a Russian
drafted resolution which affirms the terms of the ceasefire agreement
for Syria, originally composed by Russia and Turkey.
Strictly speaking, the agreement did not need Security Council
ratification, but it is significant that Russia decided to have the UNSC
effectively certify the document by passing it as a binding resolution.
The actual terms agreed were arrived at with no input from the US or
any European state. It is therefore significant that the US did not veto
the resolution as has happened frequently with Russian proposals for
Syria.
The terms of the ceasefire are similar to those of the Lavrov-Kerry
agreement from earlier in 2016, an agreement which due to the
intractability of the US State Department and Pentagon, was dead on
arrival.
Crucially, terrorist groups are exempted from the ceasefire, meaning
the Syrian Arab Army will still be able to eliminate them as they have
been doing with increased precision in the last three months.
