REPORT: France says Syria's Assad must give up power to end war

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not prepared to discuss a political solution to end Syria's civil war, the United States and others would consider increasing support for his opponents.                          

Kerry also told a news conference in the Jordanian capital Amman that there were several thousand fighters from the Lebanese group Hezbollah taking part in Syria's conflict, with Iranian support.                                

Commenting on recent offensives by Assad's forces, Kerry said they had made gains on the ground in recent days but said he regarded those gains as "very temporary".                                              

This as Syria's ambassador to Jordan has denounced a meeting of nations that back the Syrian opposition, calling the gathering part of a US-Israeli campaign to destroy his country.                

Jordan is hosting 10 other nations for a "Friends of Syria" conference in Amman. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is taking part, along with officials from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Britain, France, Germany and Italy.                                              

The meeting will prepare for U.N.-hosted international talks on Syria planned for next month.                                                   

Speaking before the meeting, the British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that Iran and its Shi'ite Lebanese ally Hezbollah are "propping up" President Bashar al-Assad and giving him increasing support.                                                                            

Hague said Britain would urge international powers to set a date in the next few days for an international conference to try to end the two-year-old conflict engulfing Syria and threatening regional stability and added that the humanitarian crisis in Syria underlines the urgency of reaching a diplomatic breakthrough to back a political solution in the war-torn country.                  

In turn, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must turn over power to a transitional government in order for a U.S. and Russian-backed peace conference to have any chance of success.            

"It is perfectly clear that the main aim of this possible conference is to bring in a transitional government for Syria which will have the full executive power," Fabius said before a meeting in Jordan's capital.                   

Meanwhile Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Syrian opposition had not yet shown enough commitment to efforts to arrange a peace conference with President Bashar al-Assad's government.                               

"We value the constructive reaction of the Syrian leadership to this proposal (for a conference)," Lavrov said at the start of talks with Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in Moscow.                                          

On another note, Syria's main opposition alliance urged fighters to come from around the country to reinforce a rebel-held town under attack by President Bashar Assad's troops.                   

The appeal came as Syrian government forces battled for the fourth straight day trying to wrest control of the western town of Qussair from the rebels. The town lies along a strategic land corridor linking the capital, Damascus, with the Mediterranean coast, the heartland of Assad's Alawite sect.                          

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah group has been fighting alongside Syrian regime forces in the town and surrounding areas for weeks.                                                  

"Forces from outside Syria" aim to destroy Qussair and rebels should join the fight to "rescue" the town, George Sabra, the acting chief of the Syrian National Coalition, said in a statement.                             

Sabra also urged Lebanese authorities to respect Syria's sovereignty by preventing foreign gunmen from crossing the border to fight in the civil war.                

A local government official from the Homs governor's office told the Associated Press that about 80 percent of the town was in government hands. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to give information to the media during the ongoing military operation.                    

He mentioned that Assad's troops had discovered tunnels linking areas around the town, adding that the fighting is now concentrated in the northwestern parts of Qussair where opposition fighters are still entrenched.                                           

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Syrian government and Hezbollah units were bombarding Qussair with rocket launchers on Wednesday. Abdul-Rahman said a group of rebels trying to reach Qussair from the nearby town of Ind Shamseen were ambushed by Syrian troops who killed at least two of the rebels.                     

On Tuesday, a US Senate panel voted overwhelmingly to send weapons to rebels fighting Syria's government, but it was not clear who would get the arms even if the bill succeeds, as Washington struggles to deal with its response to the conflict.                              

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 15-3 for legislation that would send arms to "vetted" moderate members of the Syrian opposition, the first time U.S. lawmakers have approved such military action in the two-year-old civil war.                    

The measure will now be considered by the full Senate, where a vocal group of legislators has been pushing for President Barack Obama to do more to help the rebels waging a war in which at least 80,000 people have died.


REUTERS/AP/LBCI

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