PEACE IN OUR TIME? Russia-US-brokered Syria cease-fire to start at sunset.

The cease-fire deal, hammered out between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday, allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants with the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham group, earlier known as the Nusra Front, until the U.S. and Russia take over the task in one week’s time.

Rebel factions have expressed deep reservations about the deal.

Under the terms of the agreement, the rebels and the Syrian government are expected to stop attacking one another. Along with Assad’s government, his key allies — Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah — have also endorsed the deal.

But that scenario is complicated by the fact that Jabhat Fatah al-Sham remains intertwined with several other groups fighting on the ground.

After five years of “red lines” and demands that Assad step down, it’s difficult to see this deal as anything other than a US surrender to Russian and Iranian interests in Syria.