Arab League Envoy Urges World Powers Deal on Syria

W460

The Arab League ambassador to France said Sunday that world powers have to agree on a "minimum accord" on Syria for there to be any chance of resolving the crisis in the conflict-hit country.

"If we don't manage to create a minimum accord between the powers, the friends of the (Syrian government and opposition), we can never start a transitional political process," Nassif Hitti told French media TV5 Monde, RFI and Le Monde.

"If there isn't a clear and firm political message from the part of the powers, some of whom are allies of the regime and others of the opposition... there will never be progress," he said.

"France can bring a lot of help ... in creating a minimum accord," the ambassador said, ahead of a meeting between French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Paris.

According to Hitti, an agreement on political transition agreed by world powers in Geneva on June 30 could form the basis of discussions.

The plan, championed by former Syria peace envoy Kofi Annan and supported by the Kremlin, did not make an explicit call for President Bashar Assad to quit power.

"We should return to Geneva and work on the agreement which was a good start," said Hitti.

Comments 1
Missing phillipo 29 October 2012, 09:56

40,000 Syrians dead over 100,000 wounded and the world does nothing.
Yet when two or three Gazans are wounded in Israeli retaliation for rocket attacks on civilians, the whole of the Arab World is up in arms.
What is wrong here?