Two days to convince. Francois Hollande tried, Sunday and Monday in New York, on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the UN, but also in the gallery of this, to hear the voice of France in the delicate Syrian track. Eclipsing climate issues, this case has poisoned largely occupied the 70th Session of the UN general rout, amid intense diplomatic maneuvering, dominated by two leading roles: US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
To weigh in the search for a political solution to this protracted conflict, Holland had decided to launch the first French strikes on Syria the night before his arrival at the UN. One way to restore France in the game, while Russia has reinvested the folder on the military and diplomatic plan upsets Westerners, who are struggling to get results on the ground, where Daech has continued to strengthen its positions.
These strikes have confirmed a change in strategy. France, until now, had always refused to intervene militarily in Syria, avoiding to provide any support, even indirectly, to the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who also fight the jihadists. The Elysee explains this turnaround with "the evolution of the situation on the ground": the rise of Daech and the crisis of migrants flocking to Europe to escape the violence.
An "open-air cemetery"
But if the French position has evolved on the military level, the head of state wanted to remove any ambiguity in political terms, after US and Russian interventions in the gallery of the UN. While the departure of Bashar did not seem to be a prerequisite for discussions on the future of Syria, as France was a time left to hear, Hollande reiterated very clear Monday that the Syrian president had to leave. And that the future of this country become a "cemetery open" (in the words of a diplomat), could not in any case go through him. "Nothing has changed," insisted Holland, welcoming President Obama has said "clearly that the future of Syria Bashar did not go through." "I've been saying for three years, argued the head of state. I have never changed it. "
If wearing faux against the idea of a return to favor of the Syrian president, under the leadership of Russia in particular, noted that Holland was not the only one to hold this firm stance on the world stage "No one can envisage a political solution with Bashar, he said. I refuse, Obama refuses. Other powers do not. The Russians must take the consequences. "
Later, at the podium, Holland made the genealogy of the Syrian conflict, recalling that he had started with repression of a people by a dictator. "It is not because there is a terrorist group that killing himself (...), there would be a form of forgiveness, amnesia, for the regime that created this situation," a- he tried. In response to Vladimir Putin, he did not name, Francois Hollande held that a "broad coalition" was "possible" if it had a "clear base". "Or she will never see the day," he threatened. "Some use their best diplomatic efforts to incorporate Bashar in the process, he has yet observed. We can not work together victims and the executioner. "
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