UN Security Council. Photo: wiki commons.

Fox News/AP – Syria promised to comply with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire beginning Thursday but carved out an important condition — that the regime still has a right to defend itself against the terrorists that it says are behind the country’s year-old uprising.

The statement Wednesday offered a glimmer of hope that a peace initiative by special envoy Kofi Annan could help calm the conflict, which has roiled the country for more than a year and killed 9,000 people. But the regime still has ample room to maneuver.

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