Syria ‘on the edge’ of war as refugees enter Turkey

Laurent Fabius,
French Foreign Minister

Syria ‘on the edge’ of war as refugees enter Turkey

French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, says he will call on the UN Security Council to make mediator Kofi Annan's Syria peace plan mandatory.

’’France would propose that Mr. Annan's six-point plan be enforced under the UN's Chapter Seven provision,’’ he said.

Mr. Fabius told a news conference in Paris that the conflict in Syria had become a ‘civil war’.

His remarks echoed the words of the head of UN peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous, on Tuesday.

A Chapter Seven resolution in the Security Council would allow for action to be backed up by force, which fellow council members Russia and China would be unlikely to accept.

It was necessary "to resort to Chapter Seven to make the provisions of the Annan plan mandatory, we are working towards this and hope that this move will be swiftly implemented,’’ he said.

Under the Annan plan, all armed violence has to end and all parties must ensure provision of humanitarian assistance to all areas affected by the fighting.
The authorities are also required to ensure freedom of movement for journalists and the right for people to demonstrate peacefully.

Meanwhile, Russia has hit back at US claims that Moscow is supplying Damascus with attack helicopters.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - on a visit to Tehran - insisted that Russia was "not supplying Syria or any other country with items which can be used against peaceful protesters, unlike the United States, which regularly supplies weapons to the region".

Mr Lavrov is due to meet British Foreign Secretary William Hague in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday.

Meanwhile, about 2,000 Syrians fleeing violence in their homeland have crossed into Turkey in the past 48 hours.

“The refugee movement showed a significant increase in the number of Syrian refugees now taking shelter in Turkey,'' Selcuk Unal- Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

Selcuk Unal said the latest wave of arrivals had brought the total number of Syrian refugees in Turkey to about 29,500.

“The refugees number is the highest taking shelter in Turkey at one time since the start of the uprising some 15 months ago.''

Among the 2,000 new refugees were 43 wounded people who have been hospitalized in Turkey, Unal said.

Turkey has given shelter to more than 50,000 Syrians since March 2011 but thousands have since returned to their homes in Syria.

BBC/Reuters/NAN/Sammie/Yinka