The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini in Brussels yesterday before she entered the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee’s session on the conflict in Syria (EPA)

In accordance with a warning often expressed by many about the partition of Syria, the US Secretary of State John Kerry told the Senate foreign relations committee yesterday that “it may be difficult to keep Syria whole if it takes much longer to end the fighting”. He also stressed that “it would be wrong to assume that President Barack Obama has no other options if the diplomatic solution in Syria in unsuccessful”.

Kerry’s remarks came amidst doubts about the success of the ceasefire that Moscow and Washington agreed on and that will start at midnight on Friday. The proposed ceasefire will not apply to Al-Nusra Front which does not occupy a specific or independent place on Syrian territory, and ISIS which is spread over sites that overlap with factions of the Syrian opposition which makes it almost impossible to neutralise moderate opposition forces and other non- extremist factions and civilians.

The former president of the national coalition for Syrian revolutionary and opposition forces Hadi Al-Bahra told Asharq Al-Awsat that “there are many factions that may impede the implementation of and the commitment to the ceasefire agreement, especially in light of the many foreign militias”.

The Syrian opposition is oriented towards announcing its final position on the ceasefire agreement after the US special envoy to Syria Michael Ratney gave representatives of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) assurances that it would obtain support and arms in the event that the Syrian regime broke the ceasefire according to what leaders of the opposition told Asharq Al-Awsat.