FRANCE: France's Juppe, U.S. Secretary of State Clinton say strong action required in Syria

Record ID: 280720

  • Title: FRANCE: France's Juppe, U.S. Secretary of State Clinton say strong action required in Syria
  • Date: 20th April 2012
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (APRIL 19, 2012) (REUTERS) (** BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) JOURNALISTS AT ENTRANCE US SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON ARRIVING AT MEETING JOURNALISTS' CAMERAS GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER GUIDO WESTERWELLE POSING FOR CAMERA QATARI PRIME MINISTER AND FOREIGN MINISTER SHEIKH HAMAD BIN JASSEM BIN JABOR A-THANI POSING FOR CAMERA SAUDI FOREIGN MINISTER SAOUD
  • Embargoed: 5th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France, France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA5Q00O2AHY31WHFSQFK045HPPL
  • Story Text: Foreign ministers from 14 countries across the West and the Middle East gathered in Paris on Thursday (April 19) for a meeting of the Friends of Syria group to discuss the country's future amidst growing concerns about the Syrian government's failure to keep to the terms of a UN-backed peace plan.
    Opening the meeting, French foreign minister Alain Juppe spoke of a willingness within the group to look for other options, were the Annan plan to fail.
    "We cannot wait, the clock is ticking. The monitors have to be deployed quickly and be able react without hindrance, if this were not the case we would have to examine what other options are open to the Security Council and to the international community," he said.
    Juppe went on to say that the credibility of the Security Council is now at stake.
    Prior to the meeting, the Russian government had criticised the talks as "one sided" due to the lack of Syrian representation. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said the world should focus on ensuring Annan's efforts succeed and criticised gestures of support for the opposition from NATO and Gulf Arab nations.
    Referring to the furore, Juppe said "I would like to add that I had invited Sergei Lavrov, our Russian colleague, to this meeting who declined to accept and whose feelings we are aware of thanks to the press".
    Russia has armed Syria's government and shielded Assad by blocking a Western and Arab-backed U.N. Security Council resolution calling on him to cede power, but has backed Annan's peace plan and supported it in U+0421ouncil votes.
    At the meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for further action from the Security council.
    "We need to start moving very vigourously in the Security Council for a chapter 7 sanctions resolution, including travel, financial sanctions, arms embargo, and the pressure that that will give us on the regime to push for compliance with Kofi Annan's six-point plan," she said.
    She went on to add that she planned to co-operate with Turkish officials to establish "an assistance hub that will try to co-locate Syrian activists and help them co-ordinate the collection and distribution of assistance to opposition groups inside Syria."
    Russian politicians were notably absent from the Paris meeting which was attended by representatives from fourteen countries, including the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
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