BEIJING: China on Wednesday urged Damascus to honour its “commitments”, after the regime accepted a proposal crafted by Kofi Annan that pushed for an end to Syria's year-long bloody conflict.
The United Nations and Arab League special envoy said during a visit to Beijing on Tuesday that the government of President Bashar al-Assad had accepted his six-point plan, a move cautiously welcomed by Western nations.
China's foreign ministry said Annan's visit, during which he held talks with Premier Wen Jiabao on the crisis in Syria, had been a “complete success”, pledging Beijing's continued support for the peace envoy's work.
“China will continue to actively coordinate with and support Mr Annan's mediation efforts and hopes the international community will create enabling conditions for that,” said spokesman Hong Lei.
“We are happy to see the Syrian government has accepted the six-point proposal of special envoy Annan, and believe it will be conducive to the political settlement of the Syrian issue," Lei added
“We hope the Syrian government and relevant parties in Syria will honour their commitments,” he told journalists at a regular briefing.
Annan's plan calls for a commitment to stop all armed violence, a daily two-hour humanitarian ceasefire and media access to all areas affected by the fighting in Syria, which has killed almost 10,000 people.
It also calls for an inclusive Syrian-led political process, a right to demonstrate, and the release of people detained arbitrarily.
The proposal -- put to Assad by Annan during his visit to Damascus on March 10 and 11 -- was endorsed by the UN Security Council on March 21.
Syria's opposition factions, who agreed late Tuesday to name the Syrian National Council as their representative, have called on Assad to pull back his tanks to show he is serious about peace.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Syria to back up its commitment with action, and vowed to push the opposition for a clear idea of what they were working for when she attended talks in Turkey this weekend.
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