French PM condemns unofficial France-Assad meeting
February 26, 2015
In France, several lawmakers violated their government's diplomatic stance against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by flying to Damascus to meet with the dictator.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls commented on the unofficial meeting a day after its occurrence, telling French television channel BFM TV that he "condemned [it] with the greatest strength."
"For parliamentarians to go without warning to meet a butcher.... I think it was an ethical transgression," he added.
The MPs were identified as Gerard Bapt, Jean-Pierre Vial, Jacques Myard and Francois Zochetto. Both Bapt and Vial are presidents of the parliament's France-Syria Friendship Group. Bapt, who is part of President Francois Hollande's Socialist Party, reportedly did not attend the meeting with al-Assad.
Paris suspended its diplomatic ties with Damascus in 2012 when a war broke out between al-Assad's government and pockets of the civilian population seeking his resignation. Western powers have repeatedly condemned al-Assad for turning government troops against Syrians and have accused him of using chemical weapons.
Group wanted to 'understand Assad regime'
Syrian state TV indicated that the group had primarily discussed terrorism, although none the group's members divulged the contents of the hour-long meeting.
"Coming here does not mean we back what's happened," said Myard, an MP from the opposition UMP party. "The objective is to understand Assad's regime better, because we don't believe we can fight Islamic State without Syria."
On Thursday, the Socialist Party said it was considering sanctions against Bapt for taking part in the unsanctioned trip.
A number of French lawmakers have reportedly grown dissatisfied with their country's refusal to change its position on Damascus with the emergence of the brutal terror group "Islamic State" as a third player in the Syrian civil war. Its strong influence across borders has worried France in particular, amid evidence that radical Islamism poses a problem on its own soil.
The deadly attack on the headquarters of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the subsequent shooting at a Jewish supermarket in Paris in January - although carried out by terrorists with ties al Qaeda - have further underscored fears of radicalized Muslims returning from Syria to carry out terrorist attacks in France.
On Monday, French authorities confiscated the passports and identity cards of six citizens allegedly bound for Syria as part of new counterterrorism measures. At least 400 French citizens are known to already be in the war-torn country.
kms/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters)