It aims to end the bloodshed in the country by providing humanitarian access to affected areas.
The Syrian government on Tuesday March 27, 2012 accepted the six-point plan by the joint United Nations and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on ending the violence in the country by calling for ceasefire and ensuring that daily humanitarian access is provided to combat zones, the AFP news agency reported. The news was confirmed by Annan’s spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi in a statement issued in Geneva.
The statement said Annan viewed the written acceptance of the plan by Syria as an important initial step that could bring an end to the violence and the bloodshed, provide aid to the suffering, and create an environment conducive for political dialogue. According to Fawzi, Annan has already written to President Bashar al-Assad asking Damascus to put the plan into immediate effect. He has also called for the release of people detained over the past one year of the Syrian uprising, stressing that implementation will be key to the success of the plan.
The Associated Press, AP, however reported that Annan's announcement was met with deep skepticism. Louay Safi of the opposition Syrian National Council said they did not know if it was political maneuvering or a sincere act, adding that they were waiting to see if the killings would stop. In this citizen journalism image taken on Saturday, March 24, 2012 and provided by Edlib News Network ENN, a Syrian woman reacts outside her house which attacked by Syrian government forces shelling at Sarmeen town in Idlib province, northern Syria. Syrian activists say troops are shelling rebel-held neighborhoods in the central city of Homs with at least five people seriously wounded. US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton said President Assad’s commitments must now be matched with immediate action, noting that his sincerity and seriousness will be judged by what he does and not what he says. The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague said Assad's decision was only a first step that needed to be backed by practical action.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, meanwhile, gave a new toll of almost 10,000 people killed in violence linked to the crackdown on dissent by the regime since March last year while the United Nations on Tuesday put the toll at over 9,000 dead. The BBC reported that Kofi Annan's six-point plan calls for President Assad's government to pull troops and heavy weapons out of populated centres and for all parties to allow for a daily two-hour pause to the fighting in order for humanitarian aid to reach affected areas. The plan also requests that the authorities release those detained in the uprising. It does not however impose any deadline on Assad or call on him to leave power.
