A draft resolution produced by the Arab League at Sunday’s meeting in Cairo said the league would call on the UN Security Council to form a joint peacekeeping mission to end violence in Syria. It will also end all diplomatic ties with Damascus.
Arab League foreign ministers are gathering in Cairo Sunday to plan their next move in Syria. The meeting comes a day after fighting killed 45 people across the country, including a top Syrian general, and at least three in Lebanon.
After the US closed its embassy in Damascus this week, US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford gave his first foreign interview since leaving Syria to FRANCE 24 on Saturday. He called for an end to the violence and for Bashar al-Assad to step down.
Syrian forces continued with their deadly bombardment of Homs Saturday, bringing the number of people killed in the week-long assault to at least 300. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has put a draft peace plan to the UN General Assembly.
In the wake of Friday's deadly bomb blasts in Syria's second city of Aleppo, Saudi Arabia circulated a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly backing an Arab peace plan for the country. A similar text was vetoed last week by Russia and China.
After a solid week of shelling in Homs, the international community is still scrambling for a plan. Also, Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election bid steers right and Britain marks milestones for Queen Elizabeth and literary (and journalism) giant Charles Dickens.
After an apparent admission on FRANCE 24 by a senior member of the Free Syrian Army, the organisation’s overall commander has denied his group had set off twin blasts that claimed some 25 lives in the city of Aleppo.
The head of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Ryad al-Bashar, has told FRANCE 24 that his forces were not involved in Friday's twin blasts on security buildings in Syria's second city of Aleppo, denying an earlier claim by an FSA colonel.
From the onset of Syria's uprising, the government has barred almost all journalists from entering the country. France 24's reporters went undercover and were able to enter Syria’s northern Idlib region. For several days, they lived alongside civilians and Free Syrian Army fighters. This is their exclusive report from the heart of the opposition movement and their account of how they managed to get into Syria.
INTERNATIONAL PAPERS, Fri. 10/02/12. Syria is the focus of many international papers. Asharq Alawsat gives a detailed account on the ongoing violence in Homs. Meanwhile, The Guardian focuses on the diplomatic side of the crisis. The Chinese ambassador to the UK explains just why China voted no to the draft UN resolution on Syria.
