Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-06-12-Speech-2-420-000"
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"en.20120612.20.2-420-000"2
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"Madam President, Baroness Ashton, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to focus on the case of Syria. We have run out of adjectives to describe the deterioration of the situation there and the growing number of victims, including executed women and children. The words that best describe the way the international community feels are indignation and, of course, a feeling of frustration and powerlessness.
It is clear that Kofi Annan’s plan has failed spectacularly and that we will need to think about other options. Keeping a minute’s silence – as occurred recently at the United Nations – and applying economic sanctions are hardly ways to overcome this situation.
The Secretary General of the United Nations has said quite clearly that the President of Syria has entirely lost his legitimacy and that we cannot become accustomed to massacres being a daily occurrence. This situation and this conflict are dragging on too long, in my view, with the complicity, in particular, of a permanent member of the Security Council and of the Iranian regime.
Baroness Ashton, a moment ago in this House, we had an extensive debate on the European Union’s role in defending rights and fundamental freedoms in the EU. Above and beyond our presence in the various contact groups, which is entirely justified, the EU has an obligation to put forward initiatives to bring an end to this situation and prevent the President of Syria from continuing to buy more time and massacring the opposition.
It is also clear that the Syrian National Council must cooperate, and we hope that its new president, elected in Istanbul the other day, can unite the internal and external opposition. However, given the failure of diplomatic measures, there are not many options left open: humanitarian intervention, which is currently not possible due to the vetoes by Russia and China in the Security Council; political agreements with President al-Assad, which are continuing to result in him buying more time and cruelly repressing the opposition; or other mechanisms that would ultimately result in a civil war being sparked, which is already practically the case.
Experience in neighbouring countries has shown us that, in order to try to bring an end to this situation in the short term, we need to seek political solutions to transfer power in the medium term. In this context, this solution is very difficult without a military presence and international troops.
These are my questions, Baroness Ashton: do you ultimately think it will be possible to provide a military presence in order to try to respond and stop the dreadful conflict currently taking place in Syria? Who would be responsible for supplying those troops?"@en1
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