Cairo/Paris: France sought Arab support yesterday for a humanitarian corridor in Syria, the first time a major power has swung behind international intervention in the eight-month uprising against President Bashar Al Assad.
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who first floated the proposal for a humanitarian intervention on Wednesday, gave more details of the plan and said he would propose it to a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers gathering in Cairo to discuss Syria. After months in which the international community has seemed determined to avoid any direct entanglement in one of the core countries of the Middle East, the diplomatic consensus seems to be changing.
The Arab League suspended Syria's membership two weeks ago, accusing Al Assad of failing to fulfil a November 2 pledge to halt the violence and withdraw troops from cities.
This week, the prime minister of Turkey compared Al Assad to Hitler, Mussolini and Gaddafi, and called on him to quit.
Convoys
Juppe said international monitors should be sent to protect civilians, with or without Al Assad's permission. He insisted the proposal fell short of a military intervention, but acknowledged humanitarian convoys would need armed protection.
"There are two possible ways: That the international community, Arab League and the United Nations can get the regime to allow these humanitarian corridors," he told French radio yesterday. "But if that isn't the case we'd have to look at other solutions …with international observers,"
Asked if humanitarian convoys would need military protection, he said: "Of course… by international observers, but there is no question of military intervention in Syria."
He added he had spoken to partners at the United Nations and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and would speak later to the Arab League. One Arab government representative at the League said measures which the organisation might consider yesterday included imposing a travel ban on Syrian officials and stopping Arab projects in Syria.
