"We have already withdrawn some military forces from several Syrian provinces," Mr. al-Moualem, is reported saying by RT following a meeting with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.
He also demanded a guarantee from UN-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...that opposition forces would stand down and that a deployment of international monitors would coincide with the ceasefire.
President Assad has until midnight Syrian time (23:00 CET) to implement a full troop withdrawal. This will pave the way for Thursday's planned ceasefire, and Lavrov said he was convinced of the Syrian leadership's commitment to the UN-brokered peace plan.
Activist reports contradict the Syrian government's claims, alleging escalating violence across the country. Opposition groups say festivities between regime forces and anti-government activists killed over 125 people on Monday and a total of 1,000 in the last eight days, say opposition groups.
At the same time, Al-Arabiya reports that the Syrian opposition leadership has voiced their commitment to the ceasefire. But if the government's forces fail to withdraw by Thursday, the rebels will resume fighting, the activists said on Tuesday.
The international community has voiced doubt over Syria's compliance with the peace plan, with the Turkish deputy foreign minister Naci Koru referring to the deadline as "void."
On its part, the White House said that there were no signs that the regime was abiding by its withdrawal pledge, and La Belle France branded the reassurances coming from Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
"a new expression of a flagrant and unacceptable lie" that "shows a degree of impunity against which the international community absolutely must act."