Sidelined France still determined to go after Assad

[Bosonic]

Source: AFP

Sidelined from the US-Russia negotiations on chemical weapons, France is determined that demands for President Bashar al-Assad to be tried for war crimes do not drop off the rapidly shifting international agenda.

Publicly, France hailed Saturday's deal in Geneva to eliminate Assad's deadly chemical arsenal by mid-2014.

But privately there is disquiet in Paris about an accord that some fear could bestow renewed legitimacy on Assad, consolidate his grip on power and stall moves to bolster the opposition coalition that France has championed. Diplomats say that was reflected in the double-edged statement issued by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in response to the Geneva deal.

While praising it as a "significant step forward", Fabius also emphasised that the next steps should be shaped by the contents of a report, due to be published Monday, by UN inspectors probing the August 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/frances-hollande-meet-kerry-hague-monday-160542901.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CdM3jVS6XMAK7PQtDMD

[monmouth3]

1. Notice how France is always on the sidelines? Just an observation...n/t

[Lasher]

2. I guess it's Freedom Cheese from now on.

[azurnoir]

3. Nope it's

Freedum Cheez

[former9thward]

4. Syria was a colony of the French after WW I.

They would like to have it back.

[lumpy]

5. Who says? Who would want that mess back and why.

[jakeXT]

6. The Chevalier Paul is still floating around, I guess