Syrian Daily Says Sarkozy, Juppe in 'Dustbin of History'

A Syrian daily on Monday hailed the defeat in France's presidential elections of Nicolas Sarkozy, whose foreign minister Alain Juppe had raised the prospect of military intervention to end the crisis.

"The Sarkozy-Juppe duo in the dustbin of history," announced the front page headline of pro-government daily, al-Watan.

"These two worked for 15 months to find a way, through the U.N. Security Council, to destroy Syria using false pretexts," said the newspaper.

"Francois Hollande will inherit a France almost ruined by record unemployment, and politically subordinate to the United States," the paper added.

Late last month, Juppe raised the possibility of seeking U.N. authorization for military intervention in Syria on the grounds that international mediator Kofi Annan's peace plan was "seriously compromised" by the ongoing bloodshed.

Hollande too had said the week before that he would support France joining a U.N.-sanctioned military intervention in Syria.

Al-Watan, however, lashed out at Sarkozy and Juppe.

"For the first time in the history of their relations, France under the reign of the Sarkozy-Juppe duo closed its embassy in Syria. It has hosted and participated in meetings against Syria," al-Watan said.

Sarkozy announced the closure of the French embassy because of the "scandal" of the repression by President Bashar Assad's regime of his protesting population.