Date : 13/02/2014
PARIS, Feb 13 (KUNA) -- French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius joined on
Thursday the chorus of condemnations following the arrest by Syrian regime
forces of certain evacuees being taken out of the battered town of Homs.
Under agreement between the conflicting parties, beleaguered civilians,
short of food and medical supplies, were to be escorted out of Homs by UN and
humanitarian supervision.
However, regime blockades were set up and a number of men and youths of age
to fight were detained and taken away by the Syrian army.
"France condemns the arrest by the regime of people recently evacuated from
the town of Homs," Fabius said in a statement.
"These civilians must be released without delay," he urged, warning that
the "arrests and repeated violence by the regime endanger the credibility of
the Geneva process and make it particularly necessary to adopt a (UN) Security
Council resolution on the humanitarian situation in Syria," the Foreign
Minister said.
France, supported by Western and Arab nations on the Security Council, has
been pushing in New York for a strong resolution to ensure humanitarian access
to embattled areas of Syria where there are chronic shortages of food,
medicine and basic supplies.
The draft resolution, which contains sanctions for anyone blocking
humanitarian relief, is being resisted by Russia and China. Russia says it
will put forward its own text to the UN body.
Russian and China have already blocked three UN Security Council
resolutions that threatened to sanction Damascus. Nonetheless, France says it
will go all the way with the next resolution, even to the stage of drawing
another Russian veto. (end)
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