France, Britain call on Assad regime, Russia to respect Syria ceasefire
by Daily Sabah with Wires
ISTANBULMar 03, 2016 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah with Wires
Mar 03, 2016 12:00 am
France and Britain called on Syria's Bashar Assad regime and its Russian ally to immediately end attacks on the Western-backed moderate opposition, saying all sides had to fully implement a cessation of hostilities deal and allow unfettered access to besieged areas.
President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister David Cameron met in northern France as part of a bi-annual summit also commemorating the centenary later this year of the Battle of the Somme, in which 600,000 British and French soldiers died.
Hollande and Cameron, as backers of the "moderate" Syrian opposition, repeated their concerns that Bashar Assad's Syria regime forces and their allies, including Russia, were continuing to target rebel forces, despite a ceasefire calling for cessation of hostilities.
They added that all attacks against civilians and medical personnel had to stop and that the Syrian regime and its allies should stop their "march to Aleppo, which compromised peace prospects and threatens to dramatically worsen the refugee crisis and benefit DAESH."
"We are putting pressure on all the players so that the bombings don't start again and that there is a real negotiation in which the opposition has its place," Hollande said, referring to Syrian peace talks that are due to resume on March 9 in Geneva. "We need Russia to understand that there is an opposition that should not be confused with DAESH," he said.
Both leaders said it was vital that the government was in place before the spring, to ensure that DAESH did not use migration routes across the Mediterranean to send fighters from Libya to Europe. "I don't think we can wait to start talking [to the regime] ... We can't have another migration route opening up," Cameron said.
The two leaders are to hold a conference call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday. France and Britain, both permanent veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council, are engaged in air strikes on DAESH militants in Syria and Iraq.
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