Syrian government leaders have signed a ceasefire deal with seven opposition groups and agreed to start peace talks, expected early in the New Year.
It remains to be seen if the agreement would take effect and hold, with Russia and Turkey pledging to guarantee the ceasefire, due to begin at Thursday midnight local time.
Previous UN-backed attempts to end the Syrian conflict, which started as a largely unarmed uprising against Assad in March 2011, but quickly developed into a full-on armed civil war, have failed.
Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford, reporting from Gaziantep in Turkey near the Syria border, said: "There are some serious questions being asked about one group in particular that is considered a terrorist organizationJabhat Fateh al-Shamwhich has been very successful in its battles against the Syrian regime."
Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that an agreement had been reached on a countrywide ceasefire for Syria, with Russia and Turkey to act as guarantors.
He said the truce would begin at midnight on Thursday (22:00 GMT) and be followed by peace talks between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and the Syrian opposition in the Kazakh capital Astana.
Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defence minister, said the ceasefire would include 62,000 opposition fighters across Syria.
Russia launched its air war in support of Assad's forces in September 2015, marking a major turning point in the Syrian government's fight against armed opposition groups.
Trilateral agreement
A statement carried on Thursday by Syrian state news agency SANA, which said the truce agreement excluded the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group; Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the group formerly known as al-Nusra Front; and "groups linked to them", without specifying who these groups are.
Al Jazeera's Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from Moscow, said three different documents had been signed as part of a trilateral agreement involving Russia, Turkey and Iran.
"The first document lays out an agreement between the Syrian government and opposition groups on the ground," she stated.
"The second document includes measures designed to control the ceasefire and the third lays out what needs to happen next in order for there to be peace talks."
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The Turkish foreign ministry confirmed the agreement and called on countries with influence on groups fighting in Syria to provide the necessary support for the ceasefire to last.
"Russia and Turkey strongly support the truce and will monitor it together," the ministry stated.
Representatives of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) confirmed the reports of the countrywide ceasefire at a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday.
They said the rebels would abide by the truce but would retaliate against violations by Syrian government forces and their allies.
The HNC is an umbrella group representing Syria's political and armed opposition factions, including the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
No direct talks
Osama Abu Zaid, FSA spokesman, said the rebels had had no direct talks with the Syrian government or Iran during the truce talks and insisted that President Bashar al-Assad would have no place in the future of Syria.
"The ceasefire covers all the territories of Syria and it extends to include all the groups fighting under the Syrian armed opposition," he said, adding that the rebels had agreed to start peace talks.
Abu Zaid said the truce excluded ISIL, also known as ISIS, and the main Syrian Kurdish armed group, the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG), but did not specify whether Jabhat Fateh al-Sham was also excluded.
Though the ceasefire is being described as one that covers the whole of Syria, fighting could very well continue in the areas under the control of ISIL and the other groups excluded from the ceasefireIdlib, in the northwest, and the outskirts of Damacus, for instance.
Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Gaziantep in Turkey near the Syria border, said excluding Jabhat Fateh al-Sham could "create some problems" and "futher undermine the ceasefire's chances of holding".
The group "has presence in areas where moderate rebel groups are operatingaround Aleppo, Idlib and on the outskirts of Damascus.
"If the Russians and the Syrian government decide to target the positions of [Jabhat Fateh al-Sham], the potential for casualties among other groups is going to be high".
Cautionary note
Syrian government forces and allied paramilitaries entered the eastern part of Aleppo city a week ago after the last residents and opposition fighters were evacuated from the enclave under a Turkish-Russian deal.
The pullout gave Assad's forces full control over Aleppo, which had been divided between his government and opposition fighters since 2012.
In his announcement on Thursday, Putin sounded a cautionary note, making it clear that the deal was a work in progress.
"The agreements reached are, no doubt, very fragile and they demand special attention and follow-up in order to keep them and develop them," he stated.
"Now we need to do everything for these agreements to work, so that negotiators would come to Astana and would begin to work on real peace process. I call on the Syrian government, armed opposition, all countries involved to support these agreements."
In a statement on Thursday, Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy to Syria, said he "welcomes" the ceasefire deal and expressed hope that it will "will save civilian lives, facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance across Syria, and pave the way for productive talks in Astana".
De Mistura estimated in April that more than 400,000 Syrians had been killed since 2011.
Calculating a precise death toll is difficult, partially owing to the forced disappearances of tens of thousands of Syrians whose fates remain unknown.
Almost 11 million Syrianshalf the country's prewar populationhave been displaced from their homes.
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