Syria (Q&A - Excerpt from the daily press briefing - August 13, 2012)

In addition to Laurent Fabius’s visit to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, what diplomatic initiatives is France considering in the coming days to try to resolve the Syrian conflict?

France is strongly mobilized in support of the Syrian people and their struggle to freely decide their future in the face of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which is still stepping up its atrocities.

 A few weeks ago, it hosted the “Friends of Syria” conference in Paris, bringing together 107 countries and international organizations.

 Between Wednesday and Friday, Laurent Fabius will be visiting Syria’s neighbors—Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey—to discuss the effects of the Syrian crisis on their countries, which are taking in a very large number of refugees. During his trip, the foreign minister will express France’s support for Syrian refugees who have been forced into exile by the violence. In these three countries, the minister will engage in high-level political meetings, as part of France’s efforts to promote a swift and credible political transition in Syria.

 On August 30, Mr. Fabius will preside over a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York to deal with the Syrian crisis.

In addition to these meetings, the foreign minister is constantly in touch with his counterparts and the Syrian opposition through our embassies and diplomatic missions throughout the world to promote a political transition.

France is also active on the humanitarian level. France sent a military medical/surgical unit to the Jordanian border to help individuals wounded in the fighting in Syria, notably the victims of bullet wounds, and to support Syrian refugees.

France is working non-stop to get Bashar al-Assad’s murderous regime to make way for a free, democratic and pluralistic Syria.