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Wednesday 11 April 2012

Syria Ceasefire Is 'Still Alive', Annan Says "Syria Defies Cease-Fire Ahead Of G8 Talks "

UN special envoy Kofi Annan has insisted a planned ceasefire to end
the fighting in Syria remains "very much alive", despite regime troops
launching new attacks across the Turkish border.
Speaking in Tehran on Wednesday he said he had "received assurances
from the Syrian government that they will respect the ceasefire".
His remarks came just hours after Turkish media reported that shots
were fired by Syrian forces at a refugee camp just across the border
inside Turkey.
News channel CNN-Turk showed images of automatic rifle fire towards
Turkish territory near Kilis from a border surveillance building
flying the Syrian flag.
Several television stations reported that troops had fired at Syrians
trying to cross no man's land on the frontier to seek refuge in Turkey
from the violence rocking Syria.
On Tuesday activists said 26 people, mostly civilians, were killed in
the city of Homs in an army bombardment.
China has reiterated Mr Annan's calls for all sides in Syria to
respond to the six-point proposal.
On Monday, shooting from the Syrian side of the border wounded four
Syrians and two Turks on Turkish soil.
Turkey, a one-time ally of the Syrian regime but now one of its
strongest critics, is home to around 25,000 Syrians in several camps
set up in three provinces, an operation its prime minister deemed
costly.
"We have already spent $150m...What are we to do if this exodus
reaches 100,000 people?," Tayyip Recep Erdogan said, urging the
international community to help Turkey house the Syrians.
The latest violence came as foreign ministers of the Group of Eight
major economies prepared to meet in Washington to discuss the crisis,
just hours before the ceasefire is officially due to start.
More than a year into the Syrian uprising, the international community
has limited options to halt the violence.
"If you want to take (the plan) off the table, what will you replace
it with?" Mr Annan told reporters in Hatay, Turkey on Tuesday.
The UN has ruled out any military intervention but sanctions and other
attempts to isolate President Bashar al Assad so far have failed.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she will raise Syria and Mr
Annan's ceasefire plan with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on
the margins of the two-day G8 meetings.
Like the other G8 capitals, Moscow, a Syrian military ally, has backed
the plan, but it puts far more weight on the Syrian opposition to stop
13 months of violence and has vetoed UN Security Council measures
condemning Assad.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he would also bring up the
Syrian question at the G8 talks.
Paris will insist "that on April 12 the Security Council draw all the
conclusions from this situation and consider what new measures are
necessary to put an end to the violence and start a political
dialogue," Mr Juppe said.
Under the peace plan, Syria's armed forces were supposed to have
withdrawn from protest centres on Tuesday, with a complete end to
fighting set for 48-hours later.

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