Statements made by the Ministry of Foreign and European Spokesperson (Paris, April 29, 2011)

 

Attack in Morocco/ Update on the situation
Syria
Egypt/ Border with Gaza


Attack in Morocco/ Update on the situation

I would firstly like to reaffirm that President Sarkozy and Alain Juppé issued statements expressing France’s shock following the announcement of this dreadful, unspeakable, odious act, condemning this cruel, cowardly terrorist attack that has resulted in numerous casualties, and demonstrating France’s mobilization alongside our compatriots who were the victims of this crime.

President Sarkozy spoke yesterday with the King of Morocco and indicated to him our readiness and determination to work closely with the Moroccan authorities. Once the conclusions of the inquiry conducted by the Moroccan authorities have been established, one of the numerous theories that are circulating will be confirmed, but for the moment that’s impossible. The Moroccan authorities have mobilized their efforts to assist the victims, in liaison with our consulate. Now is the time to demonstrate responsibility. Let’s wait until the inquiry that is in progress has been completed. And let’s wait before we give any figures or announce the death toll. We can’t give an exact figure yet regarding the French casualties.

As soon as the attack was announced, our embassy in Rabat implemented measures to provide assistance to our nationals and their families. A crisis center was set up at the embassy in Rabat as well as in our Consulate General in Marrakesh which can be reached 24 hours a day. The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs’ Crisis Center is in contact with the families of our compatriots.

Our ambassador to Morocco immediately travelled to the area with several colleagues in order to liaise with the Moroccan authorities, notably with respect to the identification of the victims regarding whom we are still at the verification stage.

The team from the Consulate General in Marrakesh has been strengthened in order provide assistance to the French nationals and their families. The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs’ Crisis Center has sent three officers to provide support, as well as two psychologists.

Regarding the repatriation of our injured citizens, a medical assessment must be carried out before any decisions can be made, and in agreement with the Moroccan authorities, the injured will be directed to the appropriate hospitals.

In addition, a team of police officers is arriving from France today.

More than 41,000 French citizens are registered in Morocco, almost half of whom hold dual nationality. More than 6,000 French citizens are registered in Marrakesh, a third of whom hold dual nationality.

According to our information, at this stage 16 people are reported to have died and 21 injured. The identification process is continuing.

Are we sure that France wasn’t specifically targeted? Were any specific demands issued to France beforehand? […]

As I told you, we can only speculate regarding the origin and identity of those responsible for this attack. This is the time to assume responsibility, to provide information on the nationalities of the victims. This is the information that you should have in mind at the moment. I would like to underline that Marrakesh is a very important tourist center in Morocco, particularly this square and this café. It was inevitably that there were foreign victims. We didn’t have any indication that French nationals might be targeted at that time, in that location.

[…]

Syria

Where are you with respect to Syria? 

Regarding Syria, France’s position is based on several principles. Firstly, that of rejection and condemnation, and that’s been the case several times over the last few days, beginning with the positions presented by Mr. Alain Juppé. Rejection and condemnation of the use of violence, and above all, the use of violence such as we’ve seen in Syria in recent days.

Secondly, in such circumstances, this obligation to put an immediate end to this violence must constitute a priority in terms of our action and must be kept in mind. France mobilized its efforts over the last few days. We made considerable efforts at the Security Council two days ago in order to ensure the adoption of a Security Council statement on the events in Syria, the crackdown in Syria, and the escalating violence in Syria. No agreement was reached within the Security Council. We regret this, but it won’t prevent us from continuing our efforts. That’s what’s happening in New York.

Today, things are happening in Geneva and Brussels.

In Brussels, the EU Political and Security Committee is now meeting. Please refer to Alain Juppé’s statement on Wednesday evening in which he spoke about France’s effort to ensure that sanctions are adopted at the European level. The European mechanism will get under way at the PSC, the EU Political and Security Committee. Things are starting to move forward with a view towards adopting sanctions. We will see the initial results of this work during the course of the day, it being understood that we are at the beginning of a European decision-making process.

And then in Geneva at the UN Human Rights Council. It is meeting today – and I underline this – in special session. We have three objectives. The first is to condemn the violence. The second relates to a commission of inquiry into what has taken place in Syria over the last few weeks, and in particular in the last few days, when the crackdown intensified.

The third objective is, since this is a situation that is in many respects incongruous, to emphasize that, at a time when a number of member countries of the Human Rights Council are renewing their membership, Syria, in the current circumstances, doesn’t have a rightful place on this Council.

That’s where we are with regard to Syria and of course we plan to continue our efforts to convey messages to the Syrian regime, in order to reiterate to it our demands that the violence stop. France clearly conveyed these messages when we summoned Syria’s ambassador to France. We conveyed a number of messages regarding the condemnation of the violence, our demand for the violence to stop, our demand for the release of prisoners of conscience and the demand that the Syrian regime use other means and employ a different strategy in order to deal with the domestic political situation. We will continue to work in this direction over the next few days and weeks.

[…]   

 

Egypt/ Border with Gaza

We welcome this Egyptian decision which goes in the right direction. We reaffirm the urgent need to continue the fight to prevent arms smuggling in accordance with the provisions of UNSCR 1860.

Together with our European partners, we urge Israel to implement a fundamental change of policy with respect to the Gaza Strip, which requires the continuation of the measures to ease the situation implemented since June 2010, notably through the liberalization of the conditions governing the movement of people and the authorization to export all commercial goods.