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First Posted: 4/12/2012 BEIRUT &amp;#8212; Syria promised to stop fighting in time for today's deadline for a cease-fire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan but reserved the right to respond to any aggression, a hedge against any end in the fighting that has convulsed the nation for more than a year.
The statement came Wednesday as Annan was in Tehran to seek support for his faltering plan to stop the country's slide toward civil war. Iran is one of Syria's most powerful allies.
Many world leaders see Annan's plan &amp;#8212; which called for Syria to pull its tanks back to barracks on Tuesday, followed by a full cease-fire by both sides by 6 a.m. today &amp;#8212; as the best hope to calm a year-old conflict that the U.N. estimates has killed 9,000 people.
But the U.S. and others also are skeptical President Bashar Assad's regime will fully comply after several previous failures. Syria disregarded the Tuesday deadline, and was still attacking its opponents Wednesday with rockets and mortar fire.
In a statement carried on the state-run SANA news agency, a defense official said Syria's army successfully fought off "armed terrorist groups," which is the term Damascus uses to describe those behind the country's year-old uprising.
"A decision has been taken to stop these missions as of the morning of Thursday, April 12, 2012," the unnamed official said, adding: "Our armed forces are ready to repulse any aggression carried out by the armed terrorist groups against civilians or troops."
Annan spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem sent a letter with an identical pledge to the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy. Fawzi said Annan will work with the Syrian government on implementation of his six-point plan to end the bloodshed.

Syria vows to adhere to deadline set by U.N.