FRANCE: Friends of Syria ministers meeting in Paris call on Assad to respect ceasefire

Record ID: 280717

  • Title: FRANCE: Friends of Syria ministers meeting in Paris call on Assad to respect ceasefire
  • Date: 20th April 2012
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (APRIL 19, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GROUP PHOTO OF MINISTERS JOURNALISTS' CAMERAS FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER ALAIN JUPPE AND MINISTERS WALKING ONTO STAGE AT PRESS CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF JOURNALISTS AT PRESS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER ALAIN JUPPE SAYING: "We were very clear in the presentation of the work to do. Today for us,
  • Embargoed: 5th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France, France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVAE5Z7CO07BFONCEW9KBXYU2CYE
  • Story Text: The "Friends of Syria" coalition meeting in Paris on Thursday (April 19) called a U.N.-backed peace plan the "last hope" to resolve the crisis and said they would do all they could to help it succeed, according to draft conclusions obtained by Reuters.
    Alluding to fears that Syria could descend into all-out civil war if the plan worked out by international envoy Kofi Annan fails a draft communique added that although it was fragile, the Annan mission represents "a last hope."
    The 14-nation group - including the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, as well as France - called on the Syria authorities to end all violence immediately and said it would work to ensure the success of Annan's Arab League-U.N. plan: "If this were not to happen," the statement said, "The U.N. Security Council and international community would have to look at other options."
    France said United Nations observers must be deployed quickly to Syria and that failure of the plan would put the country on a path to a civil war that could spill out into the surrounding region.
    Before the meeting, Juppe said at least 300-400 U.N. observers would be required in Syria and that foreign powers would discuss new ways to end the violence in case the mission failed to consolidate a week-old truce.
    Damascus and the United Nations agreed on Thursday on the terms for observers to enter the country to monitor a ceasefire, arranged more than a year after the start of an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
    But many Western powers remain sceptical the mission will have the clout it needs. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Syria had not fully withdrawn troops and heavy weapons from towns, as it had promised under Annan's six-point plan to end the conflict and begin a political dialogue.
    Juppe's estimate of the number of observers required was somewhat higher than the 250 which Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem has said is "reasonable" and the 300 which Ban has said would be necessary to monitor the ceasefire. The draft statement made no mention of numbers for the force.
    The French government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, who faces the first round of a tough re-election battle on Sunday, has long led calls for Assad to step aside and was the first country to recognise the opposition Syrian National Council as a legitimate interlocutor.
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