Iraq warns of proxy war as Assad 'accepts' Annan plan

UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan Clashes between Syrian security forces and rebels killed at least 21 people on Thursday as Arab leaders gathered in Baghdad to press Damascus to follow a peace plan that

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad apparently accepted.
Arab League foreign ministers meeting in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, also agreed on a draft resolution on Syria, which calls for action on a UN-backed peace plan formulated by former UN chief Kofi Annan.
Assad has agreed to the plan and will spare no effort to make it succeed, state news agency SANA reported.
The summit is the first such meeting in Baghdad for at least two decades.
Assad's remarks were contained in a message to the world's emerging powers - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - who met in Delhi on Thursday.
He said he would work to enforce the peace plan but "terrorism" must stop as well, SANA quoted him as saying.
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned that arming either side in Syria will lead to a "proxy war". 
Speaking after the first day of the summit on Wednesday, Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said "the Syrian crisis is not exclusively an Arab one, it affects the entire international community", and called for a "unified vision" when it came to resolving regional issues.
On Tuesday, Annan, the joint UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, said Assad had agreed to the six-point peace proposal that urges an end to violence in that country.
Annan, an ex-UN secretary-general, held talks over the past week in Beijing and Moscow. Both powers have been criticised for blocking UN Security Council resolutions condemning Assad’s crackdown, but they have backed Annan’s efforts.
In Kuwait on his way to attend the summit, UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Assad to “immediately” implement Annan’s plan.
Arab states have backed away from their initial proposal, which demanded that Assad step down, after Russia and China vetoed two UN draft resolutions condemning him.
The Annan proposal is the latest attempt to broker an end to more than a year of violence in Syria, after Assad sent troops into cities to try to crush opposition fighters and protesters seeking to end his 12-year rule.
Iran has also backed the Annan peace plan, its foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Damascus responded by saying that it would reject any initiatives made at the summit relating to Syria, according to the Lebanese TV channel al-Manar.
 The United Nations estimates that more than 9000 people have been killed in the Assad regime's crackdown on an uprising that began with democracy protests in March 2011.
As the diplomatic gears turned, Syrian security forces launched a new onslaught after Damascus had made it clear it would not abide by any of the Arab summit's initiatives.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the violence, reported that eight members of the security forces were wounded in a clash with armed defectors in Dael, in the southern province of Deraa.
Syrian civilians died as regime forces stormed villages near the town of Maaret al-Numan, in northwestern Idlib province, which has been under a relentless army assault since the start of the month, said the Observatory. Three were killed in the rural area.
In central Hama province, two soldiers were killed when armed rebels attacked their vehicle, while clashes were also taking place near the town of Zabadani, in Damascus province.
A loud blast was reported in Harasta, also in Damascus province, and plumes of smoke could be seen rising near an army checkpoint, said the British-based group.
The violence was taking place despite the United Nations saying earlier this week that Assad had agreed to a six-point plan drawn up by UN-Arab peace envoy Kofi Annan.
The regime has ignored a chorus of international condemnation and pressed on with its campaign to crush strongholds of rebel fighters, who outgunned and outnumbered, have resorted to hit-and-run tactics.
Syria’s state news agency SANA said that two colonels were assassinated in the northern city of Aleppo on Thursday.
“Four terrorists shot Abdul Karim al-Rai and Fuad Shaaban ... while they were on their way to work,” SANA said.
Ahead of the gathering in Baghdad, the United States accused Assad of failing to respect Annan's plan, which includes a commitment to stop all violence, daily two-hour humanitarian ceasefires and media access to all areas affected by the fighting.
It also calls for an inclusive Syrian-led political process, the right to demonstrate, and the release of people detained arbitrarily.
"Assad has not taken the necessary steps to implement" Annan's plan, said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
"Washington is concerned over "arrests and violence continuing in Syria today," Nuland told reporters, vowing to "keep the pressure on Assad."
"We will judge him on his actions, not his promises," she added, echoing comments made Tuesday by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The 22-member Arab League in November voted at an extraordinary meeting to suspend Syria until Assad implemented an Arab deal to end the bloodshed.
Meanwhile, the BRICS group of powerful emerging market nations agreed Thursday that only dialogue can resolve violence in Syria and the crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions, Indian Premier Manmohan Singh said.
"We agreed that a lasting solution in Syria and Iran can only be found through dialogue," Singh said in a closing statement at the summit in New Delhi attended by the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.