Scepticism as Syria ‘agrees to deadline on troops’

US Ambassador Susan Rice said yesterday Mr Annan received a letter from Syria’s foreign minister on Sunday with the April 10 date and indicated he would have preferred an earlier deadline.

She said Mr Annan urged the Syrian government to start the withdrawal immediately and move no further into populated areas, and “that commitment was provided”.

Mr Annan updated the UN Security council on developments yesterday.

Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’fari said the deadline was set “by common accord” between Mr Annan and the Syrian government, and pledged his government’s complete support for Mr Annan’s six-point plan to end the year-long Syrian crisis.

But Ms Rice, the current Security Council president, expressed scepticism about Syria’s commitment, saying Damascus has made and broken promises over many months.

“We have seen commitments to end the violence followed by massive intensifications of violence,” she said. “So the United States, for one, would look at these commitments and say, yet again, the proof is the actions, not in the words.”

She added: “Past experience would lead us to be sceptical and to worry that over the next several days rather than a diminution of the violence, we might, yet again, see an escalation of the violence. We certainly hope that is not so. We hope the Syrian authorities will implement the commitments they made without condition or codicils.”

Mr Annan’s plan to end Syria’s crisis calls for an immediate withdrawal of troops and heavy military equipment from populated areas, followed by an overall ceasefire – first by government forces and then by opposition fighters – to pave the way for talks by all Syrian parties on a political solution.

It includes an immediate daily two-hour halt to fighting so humanitarian aid can reach suffering civilians, and unhindered access for humanitarian groups and the media.

Ms Rice stressed the Syrian agreement was just on the pullout of troops and equipment from cities and towns and said Mr Annan is expecting details from the Syrian government “very shortly” on the other aspects of the plan.

One of the key issues is trying to unite the many different opposition factions under a single umbrella.

Claims of a fresh agreement came, however, as opposition groups warned Syrian troops backed by tanks had torn through rebellious areas, tracking down activists and burning their homes.

Fierce clashes were reported in the central region of Homs, while in the south, dozens of tanks surrounded the town of Dael early yesterday before troops pushed in, shooting holes in rooftop water tanks and targeting dozens of activists’ houses, torching some and bulldozing others, said local activist Adel al-Omari.

“They focused on the activists. They have their names and have been tracking them,” Mr al-Omari said, speaking by telephone from a garden in Dael where he was hiding. “They went in and spread fuel to totally burn them down.”

Government troops were also said to have set fire to homes in the northwestern village of Haas, where one activist said they killed seven people in one house.

The fresh violence underlined how little international diplomacy has curbed the crisis in Syria, which began more than a year ago with largely peaceful protests calling for political reforms. President Bashar Assad’s government has unleashed a punishing crackdown to try to crush the dissent, prompting many in the opposition to take up arms and fight back. The UN says more than 9,000 people have been killed.

On Sunday, more than 70 countries, including the United States, pledged to send millions of dollars and communications equipment to dissidents inside Syria, signalling a growing belief that diplomacy and sanctions will not end the repression.

Participants at the Friends of the Syrian People international conference in Istanbul, where the pledges were made, said Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries were creating a fund to pay Syrian rebels and soldiers who quit the regime to join the uprising.

One delegate described the fund as a “pot of gold” to undermine Assad’s army.

Participants confirmed the Gulf plan on condition of anonymity, and it remains unclear whether the funds – which could be several million dollars per month – will also buy weapons.