Annan: "Plan is still on the table"

UN-Arab League Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan said there should be no preconditions to halt the violence in Syria and called on all sides to comply with the truce deadline of April 12 at 6:00 a.m. Eastern European Summer Time (EEST). Speaking just hours before the end-of-day deadline for Syria to implement the ceasefire plan, Annan said Syrian forces had withdrawn from some areas, but moved to others which were not previously targeted, and the situation was not as he had hoped. "I believe it's a bit too early to say that the plan has failed; the plan is still on the table," he told a news conference at the airport in Turkey's southern province of Hatay along with Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay. Atalay said the UN Security Council should step in and fulfill its responsibilities, if the Syrian regime does not cooperate with the implementation of the peace plan. Earlier on Tuesday, Annan flew by helicopter over the massive refugee camp in Kilis, situated right on the Turkish-Syrian border, where 9,000 Syrians are sheltering and where gunfire from Syria hit Turkish staff and refugees on Monday, drawing a furious response from Ankara. He later visited one of the first refugee camps to be set up in Turkey last June at Yayladagi, talking with some of those sheltering there. Syrians at the camp danced and chanted Annan's name, urging him to arm the rebel fighters.