MUNICH — World powers led by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that they had agreed on an ambitious plan for rapid humanitarian aid delivery to seven besieged areas in Syria, including air drops to territory held by the Islamic State and a temporary “cessation of hostilities” to be worked out over the next week. 

Under the plan, announced by Kerry and Lavrov at a midnight press conference in Munich after six hours of grueling meetings involving some 18 nations, the United Nations would convene two task forces, each co-chaired by the United States and Russia. One task force would begin work in Geneva this weekend to organize and oversee implementation of humanitarian aid delivery to the most besieged areas in Syria. These include not only areas accessible by truck convoy that are besieged by Syrian government forces and their allies, but one town, Deir ez-Zor, held by IS, where the plan is to air-drop assistance.

The second task force would aim to organize a cessation of hostilities, or temporary truce, with the goal of getting the Syrian government and rebel groups to agree to freeze fighting in one week’s time and eventually to work toward a broader and more lasting cease-fire.

The plan, Kerry acknowledged, was hugely ambitious, and it remains to be seen, he said, whether the words in the communiqué unanimously agreed to by the 20-member International Syria Support Group (ISSG) could be translated into facts on the ground.