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.”

The commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army, Riad al-Asaad, said his group was prepared to abide by the Annan agreement, but rejected the government’s new unilateral demand.

The FSA does not recognise the regime “and for that reason we will not give guarantees,” he told The Associated Press by telephone from his base in neighbouring Turkey. He said government forces should return to their bases and remove checkpoints from the streets.

Annan’s six-point peace plan calls for government forces to withdraw from population centres by tomorrow, to be followed by a full ceasefire by both sides by 6am on Thursday.

However, with the deadline looming, Syrian forces have stepped up attacks on restive towns in recent days, and activists say scores of civilians have been killed daily.

Annan condemned the government offensive, saying in a statement yesterday that “the present escalation of violence is unacceptable.”