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) jk.gb KUNA 132202 Feb 14NNNN