PARIS - France will ask for an urgent U.N. Security Council ministerial meeting on Syria to try to end the diplomatic deadlock and prevent further bloodshed, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Monday, July 30.
President Bashar al-Assad’s forces attacked rebel fighters
in the city of Aleppo at the weekend, drawing condemnation from
Western powers who say the authorities in Syria have lost all
legitimacy.
Branding Assad an “executioner”, Fabius said the country was
headed for a massacre, and urged the United Nations to do
everything it can to stop the crisis.
“We’re going to ask for a meeting of the Security Council,
probably at ministerial level, before the end of this week,” he
told RTL radio.
Western powers have thus far been unsuccessful in ending an
impasse at the U.N. over the Syrian crisis, with Russia and
China trying blocking efforts to put more pressure on Assad.
France is due to take over the presidency of the United
Naations Security Council on Wednesday, and President Francois
Hollande has said he will try to convince Russia and China to
support further sanctions.
