Annan hopes to use Iran's influence to resolve crisis

Tehran Special envoy Kofi Annan said Wednesday in Tehran that Iran could help solve the crisis in Syria, where activists reported fresh violence as a cease-fire deadline approached.

Iran is one of Syria's strongest allies, and Annan went there to bolster support for his faltering plan to stop the country's year-old slide toward civil war.

"Iran, given its special relations with Syria, can be part of the solution," Annan said during a news conference with Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.

"The geopolitical location of Syria is such that any miscalculation and error can have unimaginable consequences."

Annan said the situation in Syria should be "much improved" by today's deadline if both sides in the conflict respect a peace plan he drew up. "If everyone respects, I think by six o'clock on Thursday the 12th ... we a should see a much improved situation on the ground."

He said the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has given "further clarifications" over how it would implement its side of the plan after it failed to observe Tuesday's deadline to withdraw its forces from urban areas.

"What they mean and want is an assurance that the other forces, the opposition forces, would also stop the fighting so that we could see cessation of all the violence," he said. Annan's six-point plan called for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from populated centres on Tuesday, and then a complete cessation of combat in the following 48 hours. That 48-hour period is to end at 6am Damascus time today.

Iran is Syria's principal ally in the Middle East and has given political and material support to Al Assad's regime.

Salehi said in the joint news conference that "we told Mr Annan that as long as the peace plan continues its approach, Iran will support it".