BEIRUT — Syria promised to stop fighting in time for Thursday’s deadline for a cease-fire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan, but it also reserved the right to respond to any aggression, a hedge against any end in the fighting that has convulsed the nation for more than a year.
The statement came Wednesday as Mr. Annan was in Tehran to seek support for his faltering plan to stop the country’s slide toward civil war. Iran is one of Syria’s most powerful allies.
Many world leaders see Mr. Annan’s plan - which called for Syria to pull its tanks back to barracks on Tuesday, followed by a full cease-fire by both sides by 6 a.m. Thursday - as the best hope to calm a year-old conflict that the U.N. estimates has killed 9,000 people.
But the U.S. and others also are skeptical President Bashar Assad’s regime will fully comply after several previous failures.
Syria disregarded the Tuesday deadline, and was still attacking its opponents Wednesday with rockets and mortar fire.
In a statement carried on the state-run SANA news agency, a defense official said Syria’s army successfully fought off “armed terrorist groups,” which is the term Damascus uses to describe those behind the country’s year-old uprising.
“A decision has been taken to stop these missions as of the morning of Thursday, April 12, 2012,” the unnamed official said. “Our armed forces are ready to repulse any aggression carried out by the armed terrorist groups against civilians or troops.”
Annan spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem sent a letter with an identical pledge to the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy. Mr. Fawzi said Mr. Annan will work with the Syrian government on implementation of his six-point plan to end the bloodshed.
“The joint special envoy looks forward to the continued support of relevant countries in this regard,” Mr. Fawzi said.
The U.N. has ruled out any military intervention of the type that helped bring down Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, and several rounds of sanctions and other attempts to isolate Mr. Assad have done little to stop the bloodshed.
The Syrian uprising, which began in March 2011 with mostly peaceful protests but has escalated into an armed conflict, is among the most explosive of the Arab Spring.
The presence of Syrian tanks, along with security forces and snipers, have largely succeeded in preventing protesters from re-creating the fervor of Egypt’s Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands of people camped out in a powerful show of dissent that ultimately drove longtime leader Hosni Mubarak from power.
It’s not clear how Syria can fully abide by Mr. Annan’s plan without risking an embarrassing - and potentially dangerous - Tahrir-style sit-in, or losing control over territory that government forces recently recovered from rebels.
And despite Syria’s pledge, there was more violence Wednesday, underlining doubts about the regime’s intentions.
The mounting death toll has prompted intense diplomatic efforts, including a last-minute plea by Mr. Annan to Tehran for help.
“Iran, given its special relations with Syria, can be part of the solution,” Mr. Annan said during a news conference with Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in Tehran. “The geopolitical location of Syria is such that any miscalculation and error can have unimaginable consequences.”
Iran has opposed any foreign intervention in the crisis, and Mr. Salehi insisted that “change in Syria” should come under the leadership of Mr. Assad.
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