Asaad also dismissed a 48-hour deadline in a declaration issued on Wednesday by senior Free Syrian Army officer Qassem Saadeddine for Assad to comply with the plan.

“There is no deadline, but we want Kofi Annan to issue a declaration announcing the failure of his plan so that we would be free to resume military attacks against the regime,” Colonel Asaad told Al Jazeera, adding that the rebel forces had so far kept their commitments to the plan.

The announcement came as the 15-nation UN Security Council members was briefed by Jean Marie Guehenno, Annan’s deputy, about the worsening crisis and the peace efforts by Annan.

On Wednesday, Major-General Robert Mood, the head of the UN observers in Syria, said 13 bodies had been discovered in the east of the country, with their hands tied behind their backs and signs that some had been shot in the head from close range.

 The bodies were discovered late on Tuesday in the area of Assukar, 50km east of Deir al-Zor. It comes after the weekend massacre of more than 108 people.

US ambassador Susan Rice said the unabated violence and failure to implement Annan’s plan could lead to the “worst scenario” in Syria, and that the pessimistic scenario is the “most probable,” Al Jazeera reported.

The UN estimates that more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria and tens of thousands displaced since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 15 months ago.

The massacre in Houla last weekend, which was strongly condemned by the Security Council and a host of UN officials, will be the subject of a special session of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council on Friday. This will be the Council’s fourth special session on Syria since the crisis in the Middle Eastern country began some 15 months ago.