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		</div><p>The &#8220;de-escalation zones&#8221; to be established in Syria will be closed to military aircraft from the US-led coalition, the Russian official who signed the new agreement said. Alexander Lavrentyev spoke a day after he and officials from Turkey and Iran agreed to establish the zones, in the latest attempt to reduce violence in the Arab country.</p>
<p>Russia&#8217;s military said the agreement will go into effect at midnight. It also said the deal could be extended to more areas. Under the Russian plan, President Bashar Assad&#8217;s air force would halt flights over the designated areas. Mr Lavrentyev suggested that all military aircraft, including Russian and Turkish, also were prohibited.</p>
<p>The same was suggested in a UN statement, which said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres &#8220;welcomes the commitments to ceasing the use of all weapons, particularly aerial assets&#8221;. Mr Lavrentyev, whose remarks were carried by Russian news agencies, said: &#8220;The operation of aviation in the de-escalation zones, especially of the forces of the international coalition, is absolutely not envisaged, either with notification or without. This question is closed.&#8221; He said the US-led coalition aircraft would still be able to operate against Islamic State in specific areas.</p>
<p>As the agreement was being signed in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, some members of the Syrian opposition delegation shouted in protest and walked out. The opposition was protesting against Iran&#8217;s participation at the conference and role as a guarantor of the agreement. They accuse it of fuelling the sectarian nature of the conflict that has killed some 400,000 people and displaced half the country&#8217;s population.</p>
<p>The Syrian government has said that although it will abide by the agreement, it would continue fighting &#8220;terrorism&#8221; wherever it exists, parlance for most armed rebel groups fighting government troops.<br />
The Pentagon says the de-escalation agreement will not affect the US-led air campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria.</p>
<p>Marine Major Adrian JT Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said &#8220;the coalition will continue to target Isis wherever they operate to ensure they have no sanctuary&#8221;. He noted that the US government is not party to the agreement. The United States was represented at the talks but was not part of it.</p>
<p>Russia&#8217;s military said it wants to restore an agreement with the United States to coordinate air operations over Syria and reduce the risk of aircraft colliding. Russia suspended the agreement a month ago following a US missile strike on a Syrian air base in response to a deadly chemical gas attack that has been blamed on the Syrian government forces.</p>
<p>A Syrian rebel spokesman who attended the cease fire talks in Kazakhstan says Syrian opposition fighters have &#8220;fears and doubts&#8221; over the deal. Osama Abo Zayd, a spokesman for the Syrian military factions said it was &#8220;incomprehensible&#8221; for Iran to play the role of a guarantor of the deal.</p>
<p>He said the Shiite-majority country is fuelling the sectarian nature of the conflict and &#8220;Iran can&#8217;t play the role of a peace maker&#8221;. He says a cease fire is unsustainable in the presence of the Iranian-backed militias in Syria, accusing them of also forcefully displacing people to replace them with a loyal population. Mr Abo Zayd says rebel leaders are now meeting to come up with a formal stance on the Russian proposal.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, an international team set up to apportion blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria has started investigating the deadly April 4 sarin gas attack in Idlib province. Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Ahmet Uzumcu said the team is already working.<br />
The probe by experts from the Organisation and the United Nations will come under intense scrutiny amid widespread claims that Assad&#8217;s regime was responsible for dozens of deaths in Khan Sheikhoun. Assad denies responsibility.</p>
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