Syrian rebels have issued a 48-hour deadline for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to comply with an international peace plan or face renewed fighting. The Free Syrian Army says it will give Assad’s forces until early Friday morning to adhere to the agreement brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan. Speaking in Turkey, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Syria is at risk of a full-scale civil war.

Ban Ki-moon: “The joint special envoy, Mr. Kofi Annan, has expressed his concerns that we may have reached a tipping point in Syria, that the massacre of civilians of the sort seen last weekend could plunge Syria into a catastrophic civil war, a civil war from which the country would never recover. I demand that the government of Syria act on its commitment under the Annan peace plan.”