Date : 25/08/2012
PARIS, Aug 25 (KUNA) -- French President Francois Hollande on Saturday paid
tribute to the Syrian opposition movement and vowed to support the "Syrian
revolution" on several fronts.
Speaking at City Hall here to commemorate the World War II liberation of
Paris from Nazi occupation in August 1944, Hollande said his thoughts were
with the Syrian people, seeking to free themselves from oppression.
"I am thinking at this instant of the Syrian people, oppressed by a regime
which is only motivated by the fear of disappearing," Hollande said at the
ceremony.
"This regime will disappear - which is a lesson we give to the world -
because when freedom is on the move, nothing or nobody can stop it."
Hollande met this week with a plethora of officials and figures involved in
the Syrian issue, including the new UN-Arab League envoy for Syria Lakhdar
Brahimi, the president of the Syrian National Council (SNC), Abdelbasset
Sayda, and the Amir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.
Hollande also discussed Syria Thursday night in Germany with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel and again addressed this question Saturday with the
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
Diplomats said that Samaras had expressed concern about the humanitarian
situation as refugees from Syria are now arriving in Greece and Cyprus.
There are an estimated 230,000 refugees already in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan
and Iraq where they have fled from the fighting and more are pouring out each
day.
"France has taken and will take needed initiatives to support the Syrian
revolution, on the political level, on the diplomatic level, on the
humanitarian level to help the uprising," the French President said Saturday.
France, which has the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, is to
host meeting in New York August 30 at ministerial level to debate,
principally, the humanitarian aspects of the Syrian crisis. (end)
jk.bs
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