Truce attempts in Syria conflict
Oct 24, 2012, 4:07 PM
BEIRUT (AP) – Lakhdar Brahimi, the international envoy trying to negotiate an end to Syria’s civil war, says he has won a commitment from Damascus to halt fighting during the coming four-day Muslim holiday. But rebel and regime statements both cast doubt on whether the truce will come to fruition. Here is a look at previous cease-fire efforts in Syria, where more than 34,000 people have been killed since the uprising against the regime of President Bashar Assad started in March 2011.
_ Oct.24: Brahimi says Damascus and some rebel leaders have agreed to the truce for Eid al-Adha, which begins Friday. However, a spokesman for Assad says the government is still studying the idea, while the leader of the main Syrian opposition group says rebel fighters will fight back if attacked by regime forces. An Islamic militant group fighting alongside the rebels says it won’t abide by the cease-fire, currently the international community’s only plan for scaling back the bloodshed.
_ Apr. 12: The starting date for an open-ended cease-fire that is the centerpiece of a peace plan proposed by Brahimi’s predecessor, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Syrian regime forces halt shelling and other major attacks in line with the truce, but ignore demands to pull troops and heavy weapons from population centers. The rebels, too, violate truce commitments, and the fighting quickly resumes. Annan resigns in August over his failure to halt the violence.
_ January: Arab League monitors deploy in Syria as part of an effort to halt the regime’s bloody crackdown on dissent, but are pulled out after a month because they fail to halt the violence. The league’s president, Nabil Elaraby, criticizes Damascus for a spike in violence, saying the regime has “resorted to escalating the military option in complete violation of (its) commitments.”
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