QAA, Lebanon — Syria accepted a cease-fire drawn up by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan on Tuesday, but the diplomatic breakthrough was swiftly overshadowed by intense clashes between government soldiers and rebels that sent bullets flying into Lebanon.
Opposition members accuse Syrian President Bashar Assad of agreeing to the plan to stall for time as his troops make a renewed push to kill off bastions of dissent. And the conflict just keeps getting deadlier: The U.N. said the death toll has grown to more than 9,000, a sobering assessment of a devastating year-old crackdown on the uprising that shows no sign of ending.
Annan’s announcement that Syria had accepted his peace plan was met with deep skepticism.
“We are not sure if it’s political maneuvering or a sincere act,” said Louay Safi, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council. “We have no trust in the current regime. … We have to see that they have stopped killing civilians.”
Annan’s plan calls for an immediate two-hour halt in fighting every day to allow humanitarian access and medical evacuations. The plan also outlines a complete cease-fire, but that will take more time because Syria must first move troops and equipment out of cities and towns; government forces and the divided opposition must stop fighting; and a U.N.-supervised monitoring mission must be established.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Assad must now act.
“Given Assad’s history of overpromising and underdelivering, that commitment must now be matched by immediate action,” Clinton told reporters in Washington.
Annan, an envoy for the U.N. and the Arab League, has traveled to Russia and China to shore up support for his peace plan. Russia and China have twice shielded Assad from U.N. sanctions over his crackdown, saying the U.N.’s stance was unbalanced and blamed only the government.
Despite the high-level diplomacy, the situation on the ground remained as bloody as ever.
There were conflicting reports about whether Syrian troops physically crossed the border into Lebanon during heavy fighting near a rural area around the Lebanese village of Qaa.
Two Lebanese security officials said that only bullets whizzed across the frontier. But two witnesses in Qaa said they saw dozens of troops enter Lebanon, apparently chasing Syrian rebels.
The border in the area is poorly marked, and residents cross into each country easily and frequently. Any movement into Lebanese territory would escalate a conflict that already is spiraling toward civil war. There are concerns the violence could cause a broader conflagration by sucking in neighboring countries.
What assad’s government agreed to
Syria’s commitments under the six-point peace plan of U.N. envoy Kofi Annan, left:
The Associated Press
