BEIRUT – Syria has accepted a UN-sponsored peace plan, international envoy Kofi Annan said yesterday, as President Bashar al-Assad made a rare foray into the heartland of Syria’s year-old uprising, visiting a rebel stronghold in Homs that his forces had overrun after weeks of shelling and gunfire.
Syrian state television showed a video of the president walking casually in the devastated streets of the Baba Amr district and talking to groups of supporters and troops in combat gear. “Life will return to normal in Baba Amr, better than it was before,” he said.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Mr Annan, who represents the United Nations and the Arab League, said the president had accepted the basic terms of a peace plan which calls for national dialogue but does not hinge on him leaving office. – (Reuters)