LOC15:38
12:38 GMT
PARIS, March 31 (KUNA) -- France on Friday said that the future of Syria does not revolve around whether or not President Bashar Al-Assad remains in power or not, but it depends on whether the international community keeps its commitments made in UN resolutions on Syria voted in December 2015.
Reacting to questions on the future of Al-Assad and the US position that this is "not a priority," the French Foreign Ministry reiterated comments made by Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault earlier Friday.
"Some want at any cost that we focus the debate on knowing if we keep Bashar Al-Assad or not. The question to address is to know if the international community is respecting its own commitments," Ayrault was quoted as saying.
"Given the situation in Syria, we need to negotiate a way out of the crisis, the violence, the execution of prisoners, a crisis that has caused millions of refugees and displaced persons," he commented.
France again urged a negotiated political transition and stressed that it was in the framework of the current talks between all Syrian parties in Geneva that this political transition should be negotiated.
Ayrault noted that there must be a new constitution and fresh elections in Syria.
"It is in stages, with a method that we must proceed (and) we have to stick to this," he remarked.
"If we are to fight Daesh (so-called Islamic State), eradicate it in Mosul like in (Al) Raqqa...we also need national stability. We need reconciliation," the Foreign Minister stated. (end)
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