Syrian activists reported military attacks and arrest raids in towns across Syria Tuesday and denied claims by the foreign minister that regime forces have begun pulling out of some areas in compliance with a UN-brokered truce. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero dismissed Syria's claims of a withdrawal as “a new expression of this flagrant and unacceptable lie” and British Foreign Secretary William Hague accused Damascus of using the ceasefire deadline “as a cover for intensified military efforts to crush Syria's opposition.” “There is no evidence so far that the Assad regime has any intention of adhering to any agreement it makes,” Hague said. Even close ally Russia seemed critical of President Bashar Al-Assad's regime. “We believe that their efforts to implement the plan could have been more active and resolute,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan appealed to the Security Council Tuesday to use its leverage to end the Syrian conflict after Damascus ignored a deadline to withdraw troops from Syrian towns. “Every effort must be made to achieve a cessation of violence in all its forms on 12 April at 0600 (0300 GMT),” Annan told the council in a letter. Activists said they have seen no signs of the large-scale troop pullback that Assad committed to under the ceasefire brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan. Military forces were supposed to withdraw from towns and villages Tuesday with both sides ceasing all hostilities by 6 A.M. Thursday. In Moscow, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem claimed the regime is complying with the truce deal. “We have already withdrawn forces and army units from several Syrian provinces,” he said in a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. Moallem appeared to raise another new demand, saying that the ceasefire must start simultaneously with the deployment of the international observer mission. The deployment of observers was one of the terms of Annan's plan.
