Syria: France Demands Peace Plan Be Legally Enforced as West Works on Resolution
Western powers were drawing up a fresh resolution for the United Nations Security Council in an attempt to rescue Kofi Annan’s peace plan for Syria, as France demanded it be made legally binding on Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Laurent Fabius, the new French foreign minister, said his country wanted a resolution under the UN’s Chapter 7 provision that would enforce the six-point plan with the threat of sanctions, legal action or even military intervention. He said a no-fly zone was being considered.
Describing the conflict as a “civil war”, Mr Fabius said: “Every day dozens and dozens of Syrians are dying at the hands of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. We have therefore decided to strengthen our efforts to stop this regime of death and blood.”
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, will meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Thursday to appeal to him to support setting up an international contact group to help rescue the Annan plan without the presence of Syria’s closest ally, Iran.
On arriving for an international conference in Kabul last night, Mr Hague said Syria was ‘on the edge of a total collapse’ and that he would press Moscow to use its ‘full leverage’ on Mr Assad to comply with the Annan plan