TURKEY: Syrian opposition skeptical of Syria's troop withdrawal from key cities

Record ID: 276349

  • Title: TURKEY: Syrian opposition skeptical of Syria's troop withdrawal from key cities
  • Date: 6th April 2012
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (APRIL 5, 2012) (REUTERS) DELEGATES AT THE CONFERENCE ON "INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR THE SUPPORT OF SYRIAN PEOPLE" WALKING TOWARDS MEETING ROOM DELEGATES WALKING THROUGH DOOR DELEGATES WALKING INTO CONFERENCE ROOM TALKING TWO MEN TALKING, CAMERAS IN BACKGROUND MEMBER OF SYRIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, FARUQ TAYFUR, TALKING TO CAMERA CAME
  • Embargoed: 21st April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAA0SPN7P1IYN9EIQUHUCYJY98B
  • Story Text: The Syrian National Council says on Thursday (April 5) it is skeptical of the Syrian president's commitment to a peace plan, led by international mediator Kofi Annan.
    A member of Syrian National Council's executive committee, Faruq Tayfur, who was addressing a conference on the "International campaign for the support of the Syrian people" in Istanbul on Thursday, said fighting showed no sign of abating in Syria despite Syrian authorities declaring to Annan on Thursday that they had begun withdrawing troops from three areas.
    The troop withdrawal is part of a peace plan to end more than a year of fighting with rebels.
    "Regrettably yesterday the number of martyrs exceeded 100, and this is a very large number. We haven't really seen a real difference on the ground, and there is no seriousness in the government's promise to cooperate," he said.
    "The reality for the Syrian people on the ground is that the violence is continuing from the government side, killings continue, the burning of houses continues. The shelling of cities, villages, mosques and places of worship continues. That's why our hope is fading, and this project isn't providing any progress on the ground and major action is needed to be taken against the government." he added.
    A spokesman for Annan said in Geneva on Thursday that the Syrian authorities had told them they were moving out of Deraa to the south, Idlib to the west and Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon, north west of Damascus.
    But there were also reports of fresh clashes on Thursday between government forces and insurgents in an area in another area, in a town near Damascus.
    The United Nations are being asked to provide troops for a ceasefire monitoring mission, to be deployed in Syria after April 10.
    An advance team led by Norwegian Major-General Robert Mood has arrived in Damascus for talks with Syrian officials on the deployment of troops to monitor a U.N.-backed ceasefire.
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