France Urges Syria Opposition’s Unity, Russia: We must Be Part of Chemical Inquiry

Local Editor

The French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, urged "Syria's fractious opposition, further weakened by the shock weekend resignation of its leader, to reunite to prevent extremists from taking over."

In remarks to Europe 1 radio, Fabuis said: "If we want to prevent Syria from exploding and from extremists finally taking over, we have to find a political situation.
"For that we have to find a rebalancing of the forces on the ground," he said.
"The opposition has to reunite again," Fabius said, and pointed out that: "We want the opposition to stick to its reformist parameters and we absolutely do not want a drift towards extremism."

Meanwhile, Moscow insisted that Russian and Chinese representatives join a United Nations investigation into rebels' use of chemical weapons in Syria last week.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the inquiry on Thursday and made clear it would focus on a rocket attack that killed 26 people near Aleppo.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said the investigation could only be objective if it is conducted by a "balanced group of international experts".
The group "must without fail include representatives of the five permanent UN Security Council members, including Russian and Chinese chemical specialists," he said on Twitter.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org