Juppe: No Plans for Syria Intervention, Opposition Prefers Peaceful Efforts
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Monday that there is no plan for military intervention in Syria because the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad's regime wants to proceed peacefully.
"The situation in Syria is different (from Libya). We have no intention of military intervention because the (opposition) Syrian National Council prefers to continue with peaceful efforts," Juppe told a press conference in Kuwait.
Juppe said military action was also excluded because "Arab countries have not asked for it and because of the difficulty in obtaining a resolution from the U.N. Security Council as a result of Russia's veto" right.
He said France and other Western governments would continue to coordinate with the Arab League, whose foreign ministers are meeting on Thursday to "intensify sanctions on the Syrian regime," Jupp esaid.
The French minister, in Kuwait City to attend the Forum for the Future, warned of the "risk of internal confrontations within Syrian society," echoing fears expressed by Russian, Turkish and U.S. officials of civil war.
Juppe said he hoped the Arab League would "go further" in its actions against the Assad regime and called for talks with the Syrian opposition as an alternative to a government "which has lost its legitimacy."
Source: Agence France Presse
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