Syria
Libya
Burma
Middle East peace process
Syria
France condemns the brutal and shocking attack against the cartoonist, Ali Ferzat, some of whose pieces have, in the past, been exhibited at the French cultural center in Damascus. The Syrian regime recently took a dislike to the work of Ali Ferzat. The cartoonist remains a strong and necessary symbol of the freedom of expression. The Syrian authorities have a duty to protect their nationals. Trying to stifle this type of expression is futile.
France is more determined than ever to do everything possible to ensure that Bashar al-Assad’s regime puts an immediate end to the crackdown and to ensure that there will be no further bloodshed in Syria. That’s the thrust of our efforts at the Security Council.
Has there been any progress with respect to the resolution at the UN and the embargo on oil imports?
As far as I know, there’s no progress at the moment.
Furthermore, the brutal crackdown is continuing in Syria. Two good reasons to continue our efforts in New York. I had an opportunity to say this, but I repeat: the international community, the Security Council in particular, cannot remain passive or indifferent in the face of what’s happening in Syria, in light of all the victims who’ve been dying every day, day after day, for months, as a result of the regime’s crackdown in Damascus.
Last night, the Chinese and the Russians apparently left the room. Hasn’t there been any change of position since President Sarkozy’s visit to China where he supposedly discussed Syria?
Of course, he’ll certainly continue to discuss it and we’ll continue our efforts. It’s actually a good reason to remain more mobilized than ever since Syrians, civilian Syrians, children, women – a woman was killed yet again yesterday – are dying every day. In this respect, I invite you to consult the travel advice relating to Syria that we updated today; we formally advise against any travel to this country.
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Can you give us any information about the Friends of Libya conference? Who is organizing it and where will it take place?
This conference will take place in Paris. I don’t have the practical or logistical details, but I think it will take place on Thursday evening.
Yesterday, a preparation meeting for this conference in Paris took place in Istanbul, at the level of the political directors of 28 countries and 7 international organizations. This preparation meeting in Istanbul underscored the major progress achieved by the Libyans, progress with respect to finally being able to freely determine their own destiny. It goes without saying that in this respect everyone stressed that the National Transitional Council had played a vital role in this process. This meeting also reaffirmed that NATO’s actions should, nevertheless, continue as long as the civilian population remained in danger; that’s precisely the position taken by France, that’s exactly what President Sarkozy said two days ago in Paris. This meeting allowed us to stress the urgent need to provide funding to the NTC. The participants recommended speeding up the process to unfreeze the Libyan assets. As I myself had the opportunity of saying several days ago, French diplomats are focusing on this issue with our partners, particularly in New York, whether at the Sanctions Committee or the Security Council, specifically in order to speed up the process to unfreeze these funds which the Libyans now desperately need.
What do they amount to?
You’ve seen the initial figures, the first assets that were unfrozen, based on a decision by the Sanctions Committee. $1.5 billion were unfrozen yesterday and we will continue our efforts in this direction.
I don’t have any exact figures since the financial engineering understood by the term “asset” is quite complicated. There are financial, tangible assets for which we have to be able ensure traceability, which isn’t always easy. We have to identify the funds. The important thing for us – and this is what we’ll focus our efforts on – is to make some headway in New York, whether at the Sanctions Committee or the Security Council in order get things moving as quickly as possible.
Furthermore, regarding Libya, and in particular following the discussions that the head of the NTC, Mr. Jibril, had in Paris 2 days ago when he was received by President Sarkozy, we’re working here in Paris to determine what assistance we’ll also be able to provide to the Libyans at the national level. That’s where we are today.
Regarding the missing assets, is that being handled by Bercy?
Yes, for France this amounts to several billion euros.
More than 2 billion?
Yes, probably.
What was this figure of $250 million?
This relates to the Libyan financial assets held in the banks of EU member States. These are assets that were targeted by European sanctions. When we talk about the billions of dollars or euros, it’s within the framework of the UN sanctions, i.e. in particular within the framework of UNSCR 1970.
Is a draft resolution currently being put together at the UN to release the remaining funds?
We’re examining all options that might allow us to make progress.
So, inevitably, there’ll be a resolution?
For now, discussions are in progress. That’s one of the options. The other option relates to the decisions by the Sanctions Committee.
They’ve already made decisions regarding the 1.3 billion.
Partially, since the $1.5 billion at issue yesterday related to a request from the Americans. And we’ll continue our efforts.
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Will France, like the United States, ask the Sanctions Committee to unfreeze assets in France?
Yes, that’s one of our proposals in New York at the Sanctions Committee and at the Security Council. […]
What do you think about the visit to Burma by the UN representative, Tomas Qintana in the last few days?
France welcomes the visit to Burma by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Tomas Ojea Quintana – the first visit since February 2010.
On this occasion he was able to meet with a large number of interlocutors within the government as well as from civil society, including Mrs. Aung San Su Kyi and political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. This is a positive development.
Nevertheless, as he indicated, the human rights situation remains troubling in several respects. We share his concern regarding the detention of a large number of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, the use of torture and the grave human rights violations fuelled by the tensions in the ethnic minority areas.
France urges the Burmese authorities to take these concerns into consideration and to continue their cooperation with the United Nations.
Regarding the Middle East, have France and the Europeans changed their viewpoints with respect to the demand for the recognition of the Palestinian State on September 20? Secondly, regarding the situation in Sinai between Israel and Egypt, no one has claimed responsibility for the military operations against the Israelis. Do you have any information about the nationality of those responsible for this attack? Neither Hamas nor any Palestinian organizations have claimed responsibility for this act.
No, we don’t have any further information. This is troubling and is consistent with our appeals for restraint. It’s important that the Egyptians and the Israelis work together in this area in order to ensure an acceptable level of security.
Secondly, this will be a key topic at the informal meeting of the foreign affairs ministers that will take place in Sopot in Poland (which currently holds the presidency of the EU). […]
We can only reaffirm what we’ve already said: firstly, France will assume its responsibilities in a few weeks at the UN General Assembly. The important thing for us is the resumption of the negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians; it’s never too late. […] The status quo is intolerable, we’ve been saying so for a long time now, but it’s high time that those directly concerned and those directly affected by this status quo start to realize that it is in fact intolerable. We want to avoid a diplomatic row which would be counterproductive. […]