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29 March 2024

'Assad butchering people, must go'

Published
By AFP

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday Syrian President Bashar Al Assad was "butchering his own people" and that the sooner he leaves the better.

"France's position is clear: we consider Assad to be butchering his own people. He must leave, and the sooner he goes the better," Fabius told reporters at the UN-run Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan, which houses around 6,000 Syrians.

"We are, at the international level, encouraging the Syrians to find a political transition. I stress that a political transition must come soon -- this is the obvious solution."

Fabius and his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh toured the seven-square-kilometre  camp, outside the northern city of Mafraq.

"This political transition must unite the Syrian people and guarantee the rights of minorities. It is essential that it be representative of Syria as it is today," Fabius told a joint news conference.

"We sincerely hope that a transitional government can be put in place as quickly as possible -- one that the leading countries of the world will recognise -- and that this will enable the Syrians to hasten the fall of Assad, which has become a clear necessity."

French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday Paris was committed to finding a political solution to the Syrian conflict.

At the desert refugee camp, Fabius visited a French field hospital, which was dispatched to the kingdom on Sunday along with tonnes of aid and medical equipment.

He also met UN officials and spoke with Syrian refugees.

"The purpose of my visit here is to show France's solidarity ... My trip is primarily humanitarian in nature," Fabius said.

"The conditions in this camp are like those in all refugee camps -- very difficult ... The buildings are temporary, the tents have been set up as best they can, but all remains extremely precarious."

Syrian refugees have complained of sweltering heat, dust, lack of electricity and at times sexual harassment.

"Today I have brought just over 20,000 masks which will protect people's throats, ears and noses from sand," Fabius said.

"I will stay in Jordan for a few hours. I will also meet members of the Syrian opposition," he added without elaborating.

Jordan is hosting more than 150,000 Syrians, including members of the opposition, as well as former prime minister Riad Hijab, who fled to the kingdom last week after defecting.

On a regional tour, Fabius arrived Wednesday in Jordan and was to meet King Abdullah II later Thursday, before travelling to Lebanon and Turkey.

"I will present a report to the UN Security Council on August 30, because France will preside over the Council, and I myself will be heading it," France's top diplomat said.

"We will dedicate an important part of this meeting to the humanitarian aspects (of the Syrian crisis)."

Syria's OIC suspension 'unfair': Iran

Iran on Thursday slammed a decision by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to suspend Syria's membership, calling the step against its key ally "unfair and unjust."

"Syria should have been invited to the summit to defend itself," Iran's foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi told the official Irna news agency in Mecca.

Earlier Thursday, at the end of an emergency meeting in Mecca, the OIC announced it had suspended Syria's membership of the 57-nation body, and expressed "deep concern at the massacres and inhuman acts suffered by the Syrian people."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Salehi had attended the two-day OIC summit but were unable to stop the decision.

Ahmadinejad was quoted by state television on arrival in Tehran as saying that the OIC's decision "was a political action" that Iran had resisted.

  "At the summit, the Islamic Republic of Iran's positions on the issues at hand were accurately explained," he said.

"In our opinion, cooperation is more logical (than suspension)," Salehi said, according to the website of Iran's state broadcaster.

Instead of suspending Syria, "we should seek a mechanism to exit the Syrian crisis, through which the opposition and the government engage in talks to create favourable conditions (to end the crisis)," he said.

Last week, Iran held a 29-nation conference on Syria attended mostly by ambassadors from like-minded countries, with a couple of foreign ministers. Saudi Arabia was not present.

At the end of August, Iran will host a larger meeting, that of the Non-Aligned Movement, which groups 120 nations that consider themselves not within the world's major power blocs.

Assad appoints new ministers

Syria's embattled President Bashar Al Assad issued a surprise decree Thursday appointing three new ministers, state television said, in a reshuffle following the defection of his former premier.

It said Saad Assalam Al Nayef was appointed health minister, replacing Wael Al Halqi, who became prime minister a week ago after his predecessor defected to join the rebellion.

Adnan Abdu as-Sahni was named to the industry ministry and Najem Hamad al-Ahmad to the justice ministry.

State television did not elaborate on why their predecessors were removed.