France to Call U.N. Security Council Meeting on Syria

France, which is taking over the U.N. Security Council's rotating presidency in August, will call an emergency ministerial meeting on Syria, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday.

Fabius told French radio station RTL he would chair the meeting himself and that it had to be held urgently to stop President Bashar Assad's regime carrying out further massacres in Syria.

"Since France is taking the presidency of the U.N. Security Council on August 1, we will make a request before the end of this week for a Security Council meeting, probably on the ministerial level to try to stop the massacres and to prepare a political transition," Fabius said.

"We must try everything" even though Russia and China have blocked resolutions on Syria on three occasions, the foreign minister said.

"We cannot say that it is a domestic matter," he added, warning that the conflict could spread into neighboring countries.

Fabius also expressed fears of a massacre in Syria's most populous city Aleppo, where the government has launched a fierce offensive against rebels since Saturday.

"The Syrian people are being martyred and the executioner is called Bashar al-Assad," Fabius said.