Syria pledges to withdraw troops from the streets by Sunday under terms of Arab League peace deal
Felipe 
Syria has pledged to withdraw forces from its streets by Sunday under an Arab League-brokered «peace deal», despite opposition activists proclaiming that the regime’s continued violence meant the accord was «already dead.»
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Abdulfattah Ammura, the deputy foreign minister, insisted: «Syria means what it says and we will implement the Arab League agreement, every aspect of it. If we agree to something, we do it.»
Pressed on when Syria would fulfil the deal, he said: «We are working on it. We will see it very shortly, hopefully before Eid [Sunday].»
The accord, agreed by Syria on Wednesday, commits the regime to pulling out tanks and other military vehicles, releasing political prisoners and allowing free access to international observers and journalists.
Even as Mr Ammura spoke, however, opposition activists said that regime forces killed at least 23 people on Friday in fresh violence across the country. About 40 civilians have now died since the deal was agreed. Activists in the front-line city of Homs, contacted by The Daily Telegraph, said the regime had intensified its assault on the city since signing the agreement.
«In the last three days there has been a major escalation in the level of violence in Homs,» said one protest leader. «The Arab League initiative was born dead. It was never alive or meant to be alive. No opposition figures were involved in it.»
Louay Safi, of the opposition Syrian National Council, demanded that the Arab League declare the regime «in violation of its commitments» and called for Syria’s expulsion from the league if it did not stop the violence.
Activists said troops in Homs raked residential buildings with machinegun fire on Friday, killing six. There were mass demonstrations in the city, with protests also reported in the southern province of Daraa and in the eastern cities of Deir el-Zour and Qamishli. Contrary to the regime’s promise to allow independent reporting, The Daily Telegraph has been prevented from travelling to Homs.
In the coastal town of Banias, security forces beat worshippers as they came out of the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq mosque, opposition activists said. Then they blockaded dozens more inside the building so that they could not join the march.
In another flashpoint city, Hama, four civilians were shot, according to the London-based Syrian Human Rights Observatory. Four people were killed in the town of Kanaker, outside the capital, and a protester was shot dead by security forces in Damascus.
Two more people were killed, one of them an army deserter, when troops opened fire on a group of people trying to slip across the border into Jordan, the Observatory said.
In the Midan neighbourhood of Damascus, the atmosphere was tense. The Daily Telegraph witnessed six or seven people being detained and loaded into a police van as a small crowd watched. Video, said to be from yesterday, was posted on YouTube showing dozens of demonstrators marching through Midan, chanting anti-Assad slogans.
The government on Friday announced an amnesty for people handing in arms until Nov 12. In his interview, Mr Ammura promised that «either today or tomorrow, there will be some release of detainees. I don’t know how many. It will be in stages».
But he also laid the ground for reneging on the Arab League deal, saying it required the «cessation of violence from any source», not just the regime. «The government and leadership are very keen on implementing the agreement,» he said. «But it is the responsibility of any government to protect its citizens from armed groups. And it is very clear that there are armed groups which threaten Syria’s security.»
Most opposition groups, including the newly formed Syrian National Council, reject the Arab League deal and say that only President Bashar al-Assad’s removal will satisfy them. Mr Ammura said: «There is a proverb that when you point an accusing finger, the other three fingers are directed at you. By rejecting dialogue, the opposition prove they have their own political agenda, and that will isolate them from the people.»
The Homs activist said: «The army has not been withdrawn from any part of Homs. Buildings have been attacked and some buildings have been totally evacuated to allow the army to position snipers and heavy machineguns on the roofs.
«There have been mass waves of arrests across the city and a lot of small towns around Homs are under siege. The deal is just another chance for the regime to kill more people, and [try to] finish the revolution in the next couple of weeks.»
Source: telegraph.co.uk
Chiara 
