Clinton to Assad: Prove peace commitment

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Syrian President Bashar Assad must prove he is committed to U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan. Annan, a former UN secretary-general, said Tuesday he had received a letter in which Assad agreed to the six-point plan, endorsed by the U.N. Security Council. The plan calls for talks between the opposition and the regime in an "inclusive Syrian-led political process," a cease-fire and troop withdrawal, humanitarian assistance in areas hurt by the fighting, the release of people arbitrarily detained, free journalistic access and respect for "freedom of association and the right to demonstrate peacefully." The plan does not require Assad to leave office. Assad wrote in the letter he was committed to the plan, Annan said in Beijing, after meeting Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao about the peace process. "Implementation will be key," Annan said of Assad's promised commitment. Clinton told reporters in Washington, "Given Assad's history of over-promising and under-delivering, that commitment must now be matched by immediate action. "We will judge Assad's sincerity and seriousness by what he does, not by what he says," she said. "If he is ready to bring this dark chapter in Syria's history to a close, he can prove it by immediately ordering regime forces to stop firing and begin withdrawing from populated areas." Other Western powers made similar comments. Some Western diplomats expressed concern Assad's agreement could be a ploy to buy time and put the opposition on the defensive, the British newspaper The Guardian reported. The Assad regime made no comment on the Annan plan Tuesday. Clinton called on Syrian opposition groups to "come forward with a unified position, a vision of the kind of Syria they are wishing to build," which she said must "demonstrate a commitment to including all Syrians and protecting the rights of all Syrians." Most opposition groups, while splintered, have agreed the Syrian National Council in Istanbul, Turkey, would be the formal opposition representative. The council, which considers itself a government in exile, lists human rights, judicial independence, press freedom, democracy and political pluralism as its guiding principles. It runs the Free Syrian Army, a paramilitary force composed largely of defected Syrian soldiers fighting troops loyal to Assad. Western and Arab leaders are to meet Sunday in Istanbul to discuss a political transition and the opposition vision for Syria, Clinton said. The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency and official TV reported Tuesday Assad visited the Baba Amr neighborhood of the western-central Syrian city of Homs, 100 miles north of the capital, Damascus. The neighborhood was bombarded for 26 days before regime troops, led by Assad brother Rifaat Ali Assad's elite 4th Armored Division, drove rebels out March 1. The regime proclaimed Homs safe a few days later, but resumed artillery and mortar barrages of rebellious neighborhoods last week. TV images monitored by United Press International showed Assad wearing an open-neck shirt and blue suit walking in the ravaged streets greeting supporters and troops in his first reported visit to the city since the fighting. "We will all work together to rebuild Baba Amr, and it will be better than it used to be," Assad told a crowd. SANA said the Baba Amr destruction was "conducted at the hands of armed terrorist groups." Military clashes Tuesday spilled onto the Syria-Lebanon border, where regime troops clashed with rebels who had taken refuge there, activists said. Anti-Assad groups reported at least 57 people were killed in clashes throughout the country, including the area bordering the northern Lebanon village of al-Qaa in the Bekaa Valley. It was impossible to corroborate the opposition claims. The United Nations raised its estimated tally of the dead in the conflict to more than 9,000, up from 8,000 a few weeks ago.