France seeks tough action on Syria

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says he will call on the UN Security Council to make United Nations envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan for Syria mandatory.

France would propose that Annan's six-point plan be enforced under the UN's Chapter Seven provision, he said on Wednesday, describing the conflict in Syria as a "civil war".

Fabius said he hoped Russia would agree to using Chapter Seven, a measures which can authorise the use of force, and he said that a no-fly zone was another option under discussion.

"We propose making the implementation of the Annan plan compulsory," he told a news conference. "We need to pass to the next speed at the Security Council and place the Annan plan under Chapter Seven - that is to say make it compulsory under pain of very heavy sanctions."

France would propose toughening sanctions on Syria at the next meeting of EU foreign ministers, Fabius said.

He said the international community would prepare a list of second-ranking military officials who would be pursued by
international justice, alongside President Bashar al-Assad and his immediate entourage.

"They must understand that the only future is in resisting oppression. The time for taking a decision has arrived. They
have to jump ship," Fabius said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference during a brief visit to Iran that Moscow was supplying "anti-air defence systems" to Damascus in a deal that "in no way violates international laws".

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton renewed her call on Russia to end arms deliveries to Syria, saying that the violence-torn nation was "spiralling toward civil war".

Clinton said she supported co-operation with Russia but stood firm on her call for an end to arms deliveries, a day after she charged that Moscow was sending "attack helicopters" to Syria that could "escalate the conflict".

'Proxy war'

Asked in Tehran about the helicopter allegation, Lavrov said only that Moscow was giving Damascus "conventional weapons" related to air defence and asserted that the deal complied with international law.

Gennady Gatilov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, told reporters last month that Moscow believed "it would be wrong to leave the Syrian government without the means for self-defence".

Ali Akbar Salehi, the Iranian foreign minister, said at the same news conference with Lavrov that Tehran and Moscow were "very close" on the Syria issue.

Western and Arab nations, he said, "are sending weapons to Syria and forces to Syria, and are not allowing the reforms promised by the Syrian president to be applied".

Reports in Iran allege that Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the US are arming Syria's rebels - termed "terrorists" by Damascus - while US officials claim Iran is giving arms and military advisors to Syria's government.

Some observers fear the conflict, which Herve Ladsous, the UN's chief peacekeeper, says now resembles a civil war, could turn into a struggle between forces helped by outside nations.

On Wednesday, Syria's foreign ministry responded to the remarks made by Ladsous, saying that they represented an unrealistic description of the conflict.

"Talk of civil war in Syria is not consistent with reality ... What is happening in Syria is a war against armed groups that choose terrorism," state news agency SANA quoted a ministry statement as saying.

But one Western diplomat told the AFP news agency, on condition of anonymity, that "there is a real risk of [the situation in Syria] sliding into a proxy war as certain states support the regime or 'the opposition".

"The conflict in Syria certainly appears to be getting more brutal - and not just on one side," the diplomat warned.

'Angry crowds'

UN monitors say at least 14,100 people have been killed in the 15-month uprising against the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia came under fierce criticism from Western and Arab countries for vetoing two UN Security Council resolutions that would have sanctioned Assad for his use of force.

Since then, it has sought to distance itself from Assad while continuing to support his government.

Moscow is now trying to organise an international conference on Syria that would include several nations with influence over the conflict, including Iran. The US, Britain and France, however, object to Iran taking part.

Meanwhile, there are continued reports of violence in Syria.

According to activists, government forces continue to shell rebel strongholds in the city of Homs and live amateur footage appeared to show rocket attacks destroying a number of buildings in the city's al-Khaldiyeh neighbourhood.

The UN has about 300 observers on the ground charged with monitoring both sides' compliance with a peace plan mediated by Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general turned UN envoy.

But the observers have been unable to reach certain parts of the country, including al-Haffa, a besieged coastal town where a crackdown has been feared.

The mission said it was barred from entering al-Haffa by "angry crowds" who threw stones and metal rods at their vehicles.

Most accounts of violence cannot be independently verified, as Syria restricts access for journalists.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies