Syria says will comply with truce deadline-with caveat
UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan (right) meets with Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay at Hatay airport, southern Turkey on April 10, 2012. — Reuters picGENEVA, April 11 — Syria has told international mediator Kofi Annan that it will halt all fighting by tomorrow morning’s deadline but reserves the right to respond to any attack by “armed terrorist groups”, the peace envoy’s spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said today.
In a letter the Syrian Foreign Ministry said Damascus agreed “to cease all military fighting throughout Syrian territory as of 6am (0300 GMT) tomorrow, Thursday, 12 April 2012, while reserving the right to respond proportionately to any attacks carried out by armed terrorist groups against civilians, government forces or public and private property’,” Fawzi said in a statement.
Annan, special envoy of the United Nations and Arab League, said he would continue to work with the Syrian government and opposition to ensure complete implementation of his six-point peace plan. — Reuters
