Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Syria has withdrawn military units from some provinces in response to a U.N.-brokered ceasefire deadline which came took effect on Tuesday.

But he added that a ceasefire must be in the presence of an international team to observe its implementation in the country.

“The end of violence must be simultaneous with the arrival of international monitors to the country,” Muallem told a press conference in Moscow.

“We pulled back some vehicles from some provinces according to [Kofi] Annan‘s plan,” Muallem said in reference to a plan proposed by the international envoy to withdraw troops from rebel areas across Syria.

The foreign minister was in Moscow on Tuesday for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in an effort to persuade Russia to maintain support for the Damascus regime even as hopes for a U.N.-backed peace plan slipped away.

“We believe their actions could have been more active, more decisive,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with his Muallem.

Lavrov said Muallem informed him that Damascus was starting to fulfill the key condition of moving troops and weapons from protest cities.

Russia has been one of the very few world powers to offer some support to President Bashar al-Assad in his bloody standoff with protestors but has also backed the plan of U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan to end the violence.

The visit by the veteran foreign minister to Moscow coincides with a deadline under the Annan plan for the Syrian government to withdraw forces from protest cities, which so far it has shown little sign of observing.

The visit by the veteran foreign minister to Moscow coincides with a deadline under the Annan plan for the Syrian government to withdraw forces from protest cities, which so far it has shown little sign of observing.

“There is the Annan plan. It contains concrete points and we fully support this plan,” the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov as saying ahead of the talks on Monday.

Muallem, who arrived in Moscow late Monday, was due to hold talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov followed by a news conference later Tuesday.

Russia has repeatedly condemned the West for taking what it says is a one-sided approach in the conflict but has in recent weeks shown signs of growing exasperation with the intransigence of the Assad regime.

Moscow says its position is objective and gives it unmatched influence over Damascus, although rights activists have accused Russia of giving a green light to violence that has left more than 9,000 dead according to the U.N.








AL ARABIYA