United Nations Security Council
United Nations Security CouncilReuters

Russia on Friday submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council supporting the ceasefire it helped broker in Syria, as well as planned peace talks in Kazakhstan, AFP reports.

Moscow drew up a brief Security Council draft resolution endorsing the plan it brokered with Turkey and Iran for a ceasefire ahead of planned negotiations at the end of January in the Kazakh capital Astana, Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters.

The council began closed consultations on the text on Friday morning.

"We hope that tomorrow morning, we can go for a vote and adopt it unanimously," Churkin added.

The deal calls for negotiations over a political solution to end the conflict that has killed more than 310,000 since 2011 and forced millions to flee.

The ceasefire, which went into force midnight Thursday, has been holding across most of Syria despite reports of sporadic clashes near Damascus.

On the first day of the ceasefire Friday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported sporadic violence in the Wadi Barada area, where opposition fighters have cut water supplies to the capital.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said it was unclear who had started the clashes, with both sides blaming the other.

Syria's government had been shelling Wadi Barada before the truce began at midnight as it pushes rebels there to accept a "reconciliation deal" and leave the area.

The forces present there include former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, which Syria's government says is excluded from the ceasefire.

Since the civil war in Syria began, Russia has six times used its veto power in the Security Council on resolutions critical of its ally, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

The last such incident came earlier this month, when Moscow vetoed a resolution calling for a seven-day ceasefire in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo.

AFP contributed to this report.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)