Paris, London to Step Up Pressure on Assad, SNC Urges Self-Defense Means
Syria's leaders will have to answer for their "murderous folly", the French president's office said Monday, a day after the U.N. Security Council condemned the slaughter of civilians there, as the opposition Syrian National Council urged countries that support the revolt to honor their promises by helping Syrians defend themselves.
"The Houla massacre and the events of these last days in Syria and in Lebanon illustrate, once more, the danger of Bashar Assad's regime's actions for the Syrian people," said a statement.
"The murderous folly of the Damascus regime represents a threat for regional security and its leaders will have to answer for their acts," it added.
The statement came a day after French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron discussed the crisis by telephone.
"In the face of such a situation and the Damascus regime's unacceptable contempt for the ceasefire," Hollande and Cameron had agreed to look at how to increase international pressure on Assad "and to put an end to the bloody repression against the Syrian people, who aspire to freedom and democracy.
"It is in everyone's interest that a democratic transition answering the aspirations of the Syrian people be implemented," the statement continued.
The U.N. Security Council should remain on stand-by and should support the mission of the international envoy Kofi Annan, who needed to have the means required to accomplish the mission he had been given, it added.
The ceasefire declared on April 12 as part of Annan's peace plan has been largely ignored.
Hollande and Cameron agreed that France would host a Friends of Syria meeting in Paris, the statement said.
And Hollande will discuss Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin when he visits Paris on Friday, it added.
Russia signed up to Sunday's U.N. Security Council resolution, but it has been condemned for having previously vetoed two rounds of sanctions against Assad's regime. It continues to supply arms to its Soviet-era ally.
On Sunday, the U.N. Security Council strongly condemned the Syrian government for using tanks and artillery to target a residential district in the massacre at Houla, central Syria. Of those killed, 49 were children.
Syria has denied any responsibility and said it will launch an investigation into the carnage that took place on Friday and Saturday.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday expressed concern that the unrest in Syria is "contributing to instability" in neighboring Lebanon.
Armed clashes between supporters and opponents of Assad's regime have taken place in recent weeks in both the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli and the capital Beirut.
The statement from the French president's office did not say when the Friends of Syria meeting would take place. It would be the third such gathering after one in Tunis in February and another on April 1 in Istanbul called for tougher action against the Assad regime.
The United States, France, Britain, Germany, and Arab nations Saudi Arabia and Qatar are leading members of the Friends, whose more than 60 members include most of the EU member states and many members of the Arab League.
Neither China nor Russia, who have done most to defend the Syrian regime on the international stage, attended the first two meetings.
On Saturday, as reports of the Houla massacre emerged, the rebel Free Syrian Army called for the Friends of Syria to carry out air strikes on forces loyal to Assad.
Meanwhile, the Syrian National Council on Monday called on "brothers and friends of the Syrian people to help before it's too late," calling for effective means of "self-defense to stop the demolition of Syrian society."
Stopping short of explicitly calling on countries to arm the opposition, the SNC statement reiterated calls on the international community to take "urgent action in order to stop the killing of civilians."
Rebel fighters should fulfill "their duties in the defense of Syrian civilians and... be prepared to liberate Syria from the hands of Assad's gangs," the statement added.
The SNC issued its statement amid raging clashes across Syria, killing more than 30 people on Monday.
The deadly violence came even as U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan arrived in Damascus to try to salvage a battered ceasefire.
The SNC also called on Syrians to "express their rejection (of the) world's silence... towards the extermination of their people."
Source: Agence France Presse
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