Syrian rebels refuse to give regime weapons guarantees

A UN-brokered peace deal for Syria appeared to collapse yesterday as the government made a new demand that its opponents provide “written guarantees” to lay down their weapons before regime forces withdraw from cities, a call swiftly rejected by the country’s main rebel group.

The deal, brokered by UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, was due to take effect tomorrow, paving the way for negotiations to end the country’s year-old crisis, which the UN estimates has killed 9,000 people.

Annan said last week that Syrian president Bashar Assad had accepted the plan and its call for government forces to pull back from urban centres. But yesterday Syria’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdessi, placed a new condition — that the opposition agree in writing “to halt violence with all its forms and their readiness to lay down arms.”