France will support Syria's political transition following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, but only if the rights of minorities are respected, outgoing foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Monday, insisting that everything must be done to avoid extremism.
The fall of Bashar-al-Assad, “one of the worst dictators of our time” is “good news for freedom”, Jean-Noel Barrot told France Info radio Monday.
“It is good news for the Syrian people who from now on must take their destiny into their own hands,” after 13 years of civil war.
France, which welcomed the fall of Assad, will support for Syria’s political transition, but that support “will depend on the respect of our requirements”, Barrot said, pointing to the need to respect women’s and minority rights and international law.
Keeping terrorism at bay
Syrian rebels, lead by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), seized the capital, Damascus , Sunday after an advance that caused Assad to flee to Russia, ending his family’s six decades of rule.
HTS, which cut ties with Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda, is “an Islamist movement”, Barrot insisted.
The group must “demonstrate its sincere desire to rid the transition of extremism, Islamism and Jihadism, and to organize a transition that allows for all Syrian minorities, towards which we are very attached, to fully take part”.
Barrot said that only a state that “respects Syrians in their ethnic, political and religious diversity is without a doubt the best guarantee we can have against the risk of terrorism and waves of migration,” making reference to the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who arrived in Europe in 2015, fleeing the Islamic State armed group, which had taken over large parts of the country.
The transition in Syria must “leave no room for extremism and no room for terrorism”, he said.
The United States has conducted several air strikes in the centre of Syria, aimed at Islamic State targets, according to the Centcom command for the Middle East.
French pressure
France cut ties with Syria in 2012, after the regime cracked down on peaceful demonstrators, but Paris has maintained a special envoy for Syria, who Barrot says visits regularly and has been communicating “with all parties”.
France has economic clout to make sure its demands are met, Barrot said, “because we will have to participate in the reconstruction, and we will not do it unless the conditions that were evoked are not respected”.
Assad, who Russian media said fled to Moscow, must be held accountable for his acts, Barrot said.
France has an international arrest warrant out for Assad, for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“France’s position remains constant,” Barrot said. “International justice must be applied, everywhere and all the time. And I wish – not in a spirit of vengeance or revenge – that Bashar al-Assad be found guilty of his acts.”
The United Nations Security Council will convene Monday afternoon to address the situation in Syria in a meeting called by Russia.
For Barrot, Assad’s fall is a “clear defeat for Moscow”, as Russia now could lose access to military bases in Syria which allowed to conduct operations in the Magreb and elsewhere on the African continent.
(With newswires)
