A cease-fire agreement was reached in Hamburg Germany at the G20 when the President of the United States Donald Trump and the Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down for a 30-minute bilateral meeting, which lasted for a staggering two hours and fifteen minutes. It is widely being reported that the two leaders could get together quickly and the talks were very intensive, so intensive that people waiting to meet President Trump sent the first lady Melania Trump inside to intervene and put a stop. But that effort failed to bear fruit as the meeting continues for another hour.

While both the parties have hailed the meeting as a constructive and as a first step in restoring relations with Russia, the biggest outcome was a cease-fire agreement in Southwest Syria, agreed by Russia, the United States, and Jordon. Here are the details from the US State Department on the cease-fire,

“……..ceasefire agreement was reached today in Amman, Jordan. It’s part of our ongoing discussions that we, the U.S., have had with Russia and with Jordan over the past few weeks and months about de-escalating the violence in southern Syria. We envision – I should say this is an important step, but it is a first step in what we envision to be a more complex and robust ceasefire arrangement and de-escalation arrangement in southwest Syria, certainly more complex than ones that we have tried in the past.”

“So we see this ceasefire that was announced today as an interim step. The idea is it should create a better environment to discuss a broader and more comprehensive southwest de-escalation area in greater detail. We felt that a ceasefire – near-term ceasefire – was important because the violence in the southwest, although historically, over the course of the conflict, it has been – it has been less than other parts of Syria, the violence has steadily increased in the south since February, with both the Syrian regime and opposition defenses threatening to derail any potential for progress there.

So as we began these talks with Russia and Jordan on the southwest, we began pursuing an initiative to lock in what had been a relatively quiet south to stop the violence there, to avoid an escalation of violence, and to see that tamping down of violence as an interim step to create a better environment for a broader and more detailed arrangement.”