France: Force an option in Syria

PARIS (AP) -- France's foreign minister on Thursday raised the possibility of the international community using force if it is proven that Bashir Assad's regime used chemical weapons in an attack the Syrian opposition says killed over 100 people.

Laurent Fabius spoke a day after the U.N. Security Council called for "a thorough, impartial and prompt investigation" of the latest allegations against the regime, in a statement that diplomats says was watered down by objections from Russia and China.

France says force needed if Syrian chemical attack proved true

PARIS |(Reuters) - France said on Thursday that the international community would need to respond with force if allegations that the Syrian government was responsible for a chemical attack on civilians proved true.

"There would have to be reaction with force in Syria from the international community, but there is no question of sending troops on the ground," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French television network BFM.
If the U.N. Security Council could not make a decision, one would have to be taken "in other ways," he said, without elaborating.

France urges U.N. to visit site of reported gas attack in Syria

PARIS | (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande called on United Nations inspectors to visit the site of an alleged chemical attack near Damascus on Wednesday that opposition groups say killed hundreds of people, the government spokeswoman said.

"With regard to the information coming out of Syria, the president asks that the U.N. goes to the site," Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told a weekly news briefing.
If confirmed, it would be by far the worst reported use of chemical weapons in the two-year-old Syrian conflict. A team of U.N. chemical weapons experts arrived in Syria three days ago.
(Reporting By John Irish and Elizabeth Pineau; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

France is pushing for humanitarian corridors in Syria

France is pushing for humanitarian corridors in Syria, with a bid that is very unlikely to win U.N. Security Council backing but is part of a diplomatic game aiming at pressuring Russia.
French President Francois Hollande met Wednesday in Paris with a delegation of the opposition Syrian National Coalition and said France is working on "corridors that will possibly be opened to give necessary aid to the population".
Such corridors, presumably guarded by international forces, would need the approval of a resolution of the UN Security Council.
Russia and China have already vetoed three Western-backed resolutions aimed at pressuring Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
But Western diplomats are trying to put pressure on Russia ahead of an international conference in Geneva to try to agree on a transitional government.
[AP]