The international community is trying to come up with new solutions for the Syrian crisis. A conference of the Friends of Syria group is meeting today in Paris in the presence of over 100 Western and Arab world delegations. Italy is represented by Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Marta Dassù, who explained “an attempt to go back to the UN Security Council for a new resolution on Art. 41 of Chapter 7, which does not envisage the use of force but that could call for new transitional instruments, a political accord that was discussed in Geneva and that it has been impossible to apply”.
Opening the conference, French President Francois Hollande asked that five pledges be undertaken, including “the rejection of impunity for crimes”, the “real and effective application” of economic and financial sanctions, “strengthened support to the opposition”, by “providing means of communication”.
Addressing the conference participants, head of the Syrian Opposition National Council (ONC) Abdel Basset Sayda asserted that “every measure must be taken to set up a no-fly zone and humanitarian corridors”.
Russia and China did not participate in the meeting. “The division remains the same, between Americans, on the one hand, Europeans, the Russians on the other, i.e. the fate of Assad”, Under-Secretary Dassù underscored, adding that, nevertheless, the “logic of the Friends of Syria is to succeed in forming – very difficult this too – a credible and inclusive opposition that respects the rights of minorities and that can also prepare a political transition”.
