The Colombian government has rejected the terms of a ceasefire offered by FARC rebels. The FARC offered to lay down their weapons indefinitely as long as the military did not attack them first. But Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos rejected conditions including international verification of the truce.

President Juan Manuel Santos: “These men from the other side are not angels. They are very difficult people that just sent us a Christmas gift — a unilateral and indefinite ceasefire — that we received as a good gift. What we received is like a flower, but when we open the gift there is a stem full of thorns. So what we’re going to do is remove the thorns from this stem, and we will be left with just the rose.”

The FARC has declared temporary ceasefires around the holidays in the past, but it is the first time in decades the group has offered to indefinitely lay down arms.