9:40 AM - 1 Jul 12 via Thomson Reuters News Pro · Details
France says Geneva Syria plans implies Assad must go
T
(Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday that a text agreed by members of the U.N. Security Council in Geneva on a political transition for Syria implied that President Bashar al-Assad would have to step down.
World powers agreed in Geneva on Saturday that a transitional government should be set up in Syria to end the conflict there, but they appeared at odds over what part Assad might play in the process.
When asked why it appeared Russia and China had a different perspective on the future of Assad, Fabius said:
"Even if they say the opposite, the fact that the text says specifically that there will be a transitional government with all powers means it won't be Bashar al-Assad ... because it will be people that are agreed to by mutual consent.
"The opposition will never agree to him, so it signals implicitly that Assad must go and that he is finished," Fabius told television station TF1.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday the plan did not imply at all that Assad should step down as there were no preconditions excluding any group from the proposed national unity government.
Peace envoy Kofi Annan said after the talks the government should include members of Assad's administration and the Syrian opposition and that it should arrange free elections.
