The UN security council has unanimously adopted a resolution welcoming efforts by Russia and Turkey to end the nearly six year conflict in Syria and jump-start peace negotiations.

The resolution approved on Saturday afternoon also calls for the “rapid, safe and unhindered” delivery of humanitarian aid throughout Syria. It anticipates a meeting of the Syrian government and opposition representative in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, in late January.



The resolution’s final text dropped an endorsement of the Syria ceasefire agreement reached on Thursday, as western members of the council sought changes to the circulated draft resolution to clarify the UN’s role and the meaning of the agreement brokered by Moscow and Ankara.

Turkey and Russia say the talks in Astana aim to supplement the UN’s peace efforts, rather than replace them. They want to involve regional players such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan.

Washington is conspicuously absent from the new process, but Moscow has said it hopes to bring Donald Trump’s administration on board once he takes office in January.

Syrian rebel groups said they would consider a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia and Turkey “null and void” if government forces and their allies continued to violate it.

Russia, which supports the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, had urged the UN to give its blessing to the fragile ceasefire, the third truce this year seeking to end nearly six years of war in Syria.

Clashes and airstrikes have persisted in some areas since the ceasefire began on Friday, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said on Saturday that the truce was largely holding.

“Continued violations by the regime and bombardment and attempts to attack areas under the control of the revolutionary factions will make the agreement null and void,” a statement signed by a number of rebel groups said. It said government forces and their allies had been trying to press advances, particularly in an area north-west of Damascus.

The rebels said it appeared the government and opposition had signed two different versions of the ceasefire deal, one of which was missing “a number of key and essential points that are non-negotiable”, but did not say what those were.

There has been confusion over which groups in the opposition are included in the ceasefire. Islamic State, which has made enemies on all sides in the conflict, is not included.