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| President François Hollande addressing French ambassadors yesterday |
Will the Syrian opposition have the wisdom to close ranks and take up the baton from French President François
Hollande?
I exhort them to do so at all costs and without delay
or hem and haw. They would instantly trump the Syrian regime and be recognized by a world power and permanent member of the UN Security Council as sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
Here is what Hollande said yesterday in reference to the Syria crisis during
an annual foreign policy speech
to French ambassadors, his first as president:
…The
second challenge is the Syria crisis.
The
principle is simple: Bashar al-Assad must go. There is no political solution
with him. He is a threat. He continues, with unprecedented violence, to
massacre people, destroy cities and cause the death of women and children. We had
further proof of that in the last few days. This is unbearable to the human
conscience and unacceptable as regards security and stability in the region.
The International Criminal Court should be seized of the matter so that those
responsible for these atrocities could be judged one day.
I
want to be clear: France assumes all her responsibilities and spares no effort
to ensure the Syrian people attain their freedom and security.
To
achieve this, we have to overcome hurdles at the Security Council; our foreign
affairs minister is working on that. We will have another go because the Syria
crisis is a threat to everyone, chiefly to Syria’s neighbors. We will keep up
as much as necessary the pressure and persuasion at the Security Council to arrive
at an international community consensus. But for now, we must act.
First,
we have to intensify efforts to ensure the political transition takes place as
soon as possible. In this context, France asks the Syrian opposition to form a
provisional government — inclusive and representative — that can become the
legitimate representative of the new Syria. We urge our Arab partners to
quicken this step and France will recognize the provisional government of the
new Syria once it is formed.
Furthermore,
and without holding back, we provide strong support to those striving on the
ground for a free and democratic Syria that upholds the security of all its
communities. We mainly help those setting up liberated areas on Syrian territory. We’re working on the buffer zones
proposed by Turkey. We are doing so in tandem with our closest partners.
Lastly, and I say so in all seriousness, we remain – together with our allies –
very much on our guard to prevent the use of chemical weapons by the regime,
which would provide legitimate cause for direct intervention by the
international community.
I
am aware of the difficulty of the task and I assess the risks but the stakes
are greater than Syria – they concern the overall security of the Middle East,
and particularly Lebanon’s independence and stability.
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Want to know
Washington’s reaction to President Hollande’s speech?
Some dilly-dallying at
yesterday’s State Department press briefing, where spokesperson Victoria Nuland
was asked:
QUESTION: Well, I was going to ask about – the French
President has called on the Syrian opposition to form a provisional government,
and he said that France would recognize that provisional government. I wonder
if the U.S. has a position on that? Would you support that move, and do you
think it’s a viable endeavor at the moment?
MS.
NULAND:
Well, as you know, we have been working with the Syrian opposition for some
time as it’s worked through its own code of conduct and its own planning for a
transitional government. We have been encouraging the opposition to begin
thinking – both the opposition outside Syria, the opposition inside Syria –
about the plan that it put forward on July 3rd, and if that were to
be implemented, who it might want to have in its transitional government.
But
as you know, they are continuing to confer among themselves. What’s most
important is that, moving forward, the Syrian opposition outside Syria and the
Syrian opposition inside Syria coordinate and collaborate both in terms of the
kind of Syria that they want to see -– this code of conduct -– but also in
terms of the transitional structures that they would support and the emerging
leaders that they see. But those conversations continue with Syrians inside and
outside.
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French President François Hollande’s speech came as Syrian
activists continued the body count in Darayya, a township on the outskirts of Damascus,
where government troops killed hundreds over the last week.
The activists have now
put the Darayya death toll at 384. They posted a log
on the internet showing the full names and ages of the civilians killed from
three days of heavy shelling culminating in a ground attack last Saturday, when
Syrian government troops and allied militiamen went from door to door summarily
executing men, women and children.
Going through the log, I counted among the dead 41 females, ten infants
and 12 boys and girls aged between three and 18 years.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman
Martin Nesirky yesterday said, “The secretary-general is certainly shocked by
those reports and he strongly condemns this appalling and brutal crime… This
needs to be investigated immediately, in an independent and impartial fashion.”
