CAIRO/PARIS: France will seek Arab support on Thursday for a humanitarian corridor in Syria, the first time a major power has swung behind international intervention in the eight-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who first floated the proposal for a humanitarian intervention on Wednesday, gave more details of the plan and said he would propose it to a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers gathering in Cairo to discuss Syria.
After months in which the international community has seemed determined to avoid any direct entanglement in one of the core countries of the Middle East, the diplomatic consensus seems to be changing.
The Arab League suspended Syria’s membership two weeks ago, accusing Assad of failing to fulfil a Nov. 2 pledge to halt the violence and withdraw troops from cities.
This week, the prime minister of regional heavyweight Turkey – a NATO member with the military wherewithal to mount a cross-border operation – compared Assad to Hitler, Mussolini and Gaddafi, and called on him to quit. (Reuters)