Syria – Jean-Marc Ayrault‘s visit to Berlin (May 4, 2016)
Jean-Marc Ayrault, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, will attend a meeting devoted to Syria today in Berlin together with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Staffan de Mistura, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, and Riad Hijab, head of the High Negotiations Committee.
While violations of the truce are increasing, mainly because of the regime, we must mobilize the international community and work toward establishing the conditions that will allow the negotiations to continue in Geneva, reduce the violence and improve the humanitarian situation. The cessation of hostilities agreement agreed upon on February 27 must be upheld.
In this context, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council devoted to the situation in Aleppo will take place today at our request and at the UK‘s request. The regime‘s offensive has left more than 250 people dead and thousands injured, most of them civilians, in ten days.
France expects the members of the Security Council to bring the necessary pressure to bear on the Syrian regime to get it to stop bombing the civilian populations and comply with the cessation of hostilities endorsed by UNSCR 2268.
As Jean-Marc Ayrault indicated, we would also like a meeting of the International Syria Support Group to be held as swiftly as possible in order to obtain guarantees regarding the maintenance of the truce, compliance with international obligations, notably the regime‘s compliance with international humanitarian law, and the relaunching of the negotiations for a political transition, in accordance with the Geneva Communiqué and UNSCR 2254.
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