SPAIN: French foreign minister Laurent Fabius says Syria civil war may become a religious conflict and warns against the unrest spreading to the whole region.

Record ID: 281142

  • Title: SPAIN: French foreign minister Laurent Fabius says Syria civil war may become a religious conflict and warns against the unrest spreading to the whole region.
  • Date: 20th July 2012
  • Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (JULY 20, 2012) (REUTERS) SPAIN FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER JOSE MANUEL GARCIA-MARGALLO WALKING DOWN THE STAIRS TO WELCOME FRENCH FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER LAURENT FABIUS FABIUS AND GARCIA-MARGALLO SHAKING HANDS AND LEAVING FOR MEETING FABIUS AND GARCIA-MARGALLO ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE AND SITTING DOWN (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER,
  • Embargoed: 4th August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA81QXCKKDWYBTUD3B6NMJCGD6W
  • Story Text: The European Union is set to tighten again its sanctions against Syria next Monday (July 23), French Finance Minister Laurent Fabius said on Friday (July 20).

    "(We want) to weaken the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which now needs to hand over power and the sooner the better. We will have the opportunity as soon as next Monday during the EU foreign affairs council to propose a set of new sanctions to weaken that regime," told a news conference in Madrid, alongside his counterpart Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.
    Fabius declined to give more details but an EU diplomat speaking in Brussels told Reuters EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday are set to tighten the EU's arms embargo on Syria by ordering the boarding of ships and planes in EU waters and airports suspected of carrying weapons for use against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.
    The ministers are also expected to expand sanctions against Syria by adding 26 people, mostly military officials who support Assad, and two organisations that help finance the government, to an existing sanctions list, the diplomat said.
    Fabius said France's strategy for Syria was to weaken the current regime, unite the population and rebuild the country.
    The French official said uniting the population was needed to prevent a religious conflict.

    "We have to unite a population that is today divided because it is now a civil war, I am not sure the expression is right, it has been used, or even a religious war. And to prevent Syria from breaking up we need to unite," Fabius said.
    The conflict in Syria has intensified over the last few days with Assad's forces now fighting rebels in several districts of the capital. In the first successful attack on Assad's inner-circle, rebels killed four top security officials, including Assad's brother-in-law, in a targeted bomb attack on Wednesday (July 18).
    Fabius said there was a risk that conflict could spread to neighbouring countries.

    "One of the risks of this situation is that Bashar al-Assad, because he is on his guard, will try to take the conflict directly or indirectly to neighbouring countries and I am obviously thinking about Lebanon. And this would be extremely serious and that's why we are talking to Lebanese authorities to try and prevent the conflict from spreading to that country."
    Assad's forces responded to pro-democracy demonstrations in March 2011 with bullets and arrests. The uprising has since become an armed revolt and rebels and government troops are battling around the country.
    ENDS
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