Syria 'has respect' for Annan plan

Foreign minister Walid Muallem says deployment of 250 UN monitors is "reasonable and logical", during visit to China. Syria's foreign minister has pledged to respect UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan and to co-operate with a UN team sent to monitor a fragile ceasefire between government forces and opposition fighters. "Syrian Moreign Minister Walid Muallem... said Syria would continue to... respect and implement Annan's 'six-point proposal'," China's foreign ministry quoted Muallem as telling his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Beijing on Wednesday. Muallem also said Damascus remained committed to implementing a ceasefire, withdrawing troops and co-operating with UN observers, the statement added. Speaking through an English translator at a press conference, Muallem said UN plans to deploy 250 monitors on the ground in Syria were "reasonable and logical". So far, only a handful of advance monitors have arrived in the country and they have yet to leave Damascus since arriving on Sunday. Muallem is on a short visit to China to brief Beijing on his nation's latest efforts to implement Annan's peace proposal, which came into force last week and includes a full ceasefire and withdrawal of troops. The ceasefire currently appears to be under threat, with reports of more civilians killed in fresh violence in Syria, where the United Nations estimates more than 9,000 people have been killed in 13 months of conflict. Homs neighbourhoods shelled Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from neighbouring Beirut, said the final logistical details regarding the UN monitors in Syria have yet to be finalised. "Issues that need to be addressed include how much access will the monitors have, how much freedom of movement do they have, how much control will the government have over them?" she said. "It is going to be very hard for them to venture into very fragile areas where the army and armed groups are shooting at each other, without risking their safety." Violence continued on Wednesday, as Syrian forces shelled neighbourhoods of the flashpoint central city of Homs. Sniper fire killed six civilians in Homs on Tuesday, among at least 20 dead nationwide, activists said, as the head of the UN advance team acknowledged the mission faced a "difficult" task shoring up the ceasefire. Wednesday's bombardment targeted four rebel districts of Homs: Jurat al-Shayah, Al-Qarabis, Khaldiyeh and Bayyada, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. They are among a string of neighbourhoods of Syria's third largest city that remain outside security force control despite a massive assault on its Bab Amr district that saw hundreds killed, including Western journalists, before troops moved in on March 1. In Idlib, a northwestern province close to the border with Turkey which is another stronghold of fighters of the Free Syrian Army, regime forces killed six civilians on Tuesday, the Observatory said. Five bodies were found near Idlib city, the watchdog added. More were found in the Homs province town of Qusayr and near the capital. Two civilians and three soldiers were killed by twin bombs in the Al-Shaar neighbourhood of the second-largest city Aleppo, which has been largely spared the bloodshed rocking the country, the Observatory said. In Daraa province, south of Damascus, security force fire killed three civilians, one of them a mourner attending a funeral, it added. 'The killing still goes on' On Tuesday, Arab League ministers called for Damascus to stick to Annan's six-point plan. "We fully support Mr Annan and his six-point plan, but sadly, the killing still goes on," Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani, Qatar's prime minister, told reporters after the meeting in Doha on Tuesday. "We are fearful that the regime is playing for time. We expressed this to Mr Annan." Nabil al-Arabi, the Arab League secretary-general, called for the ceasefire to be implemented "completely and immediately". "Annan's mission is a political one which would take some time," he said. The Arab ministerial committee, chaired by Qatar, includes Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Iraq, and Kuwait. On Monday, Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, said the chances of Annan's plan succeeding were "no higher than three per cent” and that Syrians should not be supported through peaceful means but "with arms". Qatar has taken a hard stance in favour of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Hopes for the observation mission have been tempered by the failure of the earlier Arab League mission which was hampered by regime restrictions on movement, and UN chief Ban Ki-moon has demanded his monitors be given free access. Al Jazeera's Steve Chao, reporting from outside the meeting in Doha, said Arab leaders were "highly sceptical about Syria's intentions". "The Arab League did not say exactly how much time they would give Kofi Annan … before they basically rule this peace plan a failure," Chao said. "They pointed to the fact that so far, five days into this ceasefire, Syria has yet to implement any of the six points Kofi Annan has laid out."