France pushing for Syria 'safe zones'
11/25/2014 12:08:10 PM
Paris is pushing for "safe zones" to be set up in Syria where citizens would be out of reach of regime forces and Islamic State jihadists, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday.
Fabius said the country was working alongside U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura who has proposed a "freeze" in fighting in Syria's second city of Aleppo.
De Mistura wants the proposed ceasefire zones to allow for aid deliveries and lay the groundwork for peace talks in the three-and-a-half-year conflict that has left 195,000 people dead.
"We are working with the U.N. envoy ... to try and save Aleppo and on the other hand to create safe zones where it is not possible for Bashar Assad's aircraft and Daesh to pursue Syrians," said Fabius, using the Arabic name for IS.
"There are quite a few people to convince, the Americans of course," he added.
"Abandoning Aleppo would be to condemn Syria and its neighbors to years, and I mean years, of chaos, with terrible human consequences."
Fabius said the country was working alongside U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura who has proposed a "freeze" in fighting in Syria's second city of Aleppo.
De Mistura wants the proposed ceasefire zones to allow for aid deliveries and lay the groundwork for peace talks in the three-and-a-half-year conflict that has left 195,000 people dead.
"We are working with the U.N. envoy ... to try and save Aleppo and on the other hand to create safe zones where it is not possible for Bashar Assad's aircraft and Daesh to pursue Syrians," said Fabius, using the Arabic name for IS.
"There are quite a few people to convince, the Americans of course," he added.
"Abandoning Aleppo would be to condemn Syria and its neighbors to years, and I mean years, of chaos, with terrible human consequences."