France Calls for Date to Be Set for Syria Conference
France called on Friday for the major powers to set a date for a Syria peace conference.
U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon and the foreign ministers of the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China were to meet later to discuss a possible conference in Geneva.
"I want us to be able to fix a date this evening," France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told journalists.
The conference would be a follow up to a meeting in Geneva in June last year which decided that there should be a Syrian transitional government with full powers.
Ban and his Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi have had to put back organizing a followup conference several times because of the worsening conflict and divisions within the Syrian opposition and international powers.
The meeting with Ban was to come just ahead of a U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution to destroy Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.
According to Fabius, President Bashar Assad's government and opposition rebels say they are ready to take part in a Geneva II conference. Iran, a key Assad ally, also wants to take part.
Fabius said Iran can take part "as soon as it clearly accepts the aim of the conference."
The French minister added that Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Mohammad Zarif had given a "complex" answer when he questioned him about Tehran's attitude.
Zarif said that Iran had said that -- invited or not -- they "would do their best to allow the success of this conference," Fabius added.
The separate Security Council resolution does not allow any immediate sanctions against Syria for the use of chemical weapons. But a new vote could be held later on U.N. action.
Fabius said it was uncertain whether Russia, which has a veto power on U.N. resolutions, would allow any U.N. action against its ally Assad. Russia has already vetoed three U.N. resolutions seeking to increase pressure on Assad.
"We will have to be extremely mistrustful of the regime bearing in mind its sad record," Fabius told reporters.
The international community will also "have to see if the Russians want to show good faith or use their blocking power.
"We will see in the days and weeks ahead if the Russians are coherent with what they vote," the minister said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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