FRANCE AND BRITAIN have urged Syrian opponents of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to unite so that the outside world can help them overthrow him.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy and British prime minister David Cameron said the lack of unity among opposition groups was as much of a hurdle to resolving the crisis as the opposition within the UN Security Council to taking a tough line against Dr Assad.
“The principal obstacle . . . is not just the blockage at the UN. In Libya we couldn’t have had the revolution without the Libyans and we won’t be able to have a Syrian revolution without the Syrian opposition making enough effort to unite that we can support them more,” Mr Sarkozy said after a meeting in Paris with Mr Cameron.
“We will not accept a dictator massacring his people, but the revolution will not be led from outside. Like in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, it must be led from the inside.”
On a day when government forces kept up their assault on opposition strongholds in the city of Homs, Mr Cameron said the lack of a united Syrian opposition was restricting what the outside world could do to help.
He said France and Britain – which together led global efforts to contain Libyan dictator Muammar Gadafy’s forces last year – were nonetheless working together to see how they could help the opposition.
On Thursday, 137 states voted in favour, 12 voted against and 17 abstained at the UN assembly on a resolution endorsing an Arab League plan telling Dr Assad to step down. Russia and China voted against, after vetoing a similar security council text earlier this month.
World powers will meet in Tunisia next week to discuss the crisis at a conference co-chaired by French foreign minister Alain Juppé and his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu.
“We need to take all the action that we can to put the maximum pressure on Assad to go and to stop the butchery that is taking place,” Mr Cameron said.
France said on Thursday that a compromise with Russia at the UN was possible to end the violence in the short term and provide humanitarian aid to Syrians. Britain has committed to sending food rations to help 20,000 Syrians.
The Franco-British summit in Paris focused mainly on moves to strengthen bilateral co-operation on nuclear power. The two leaders announced a partnership between France’s Areva and Britain’s Rolls Royce to develop nuclear plants.
Mr Cameron admitted there had been “differences” between the two states but pointed to “extremely strong” economic co-operation.
The British prime minister said military co-operation was at its “strongest since the second World War”, and the two states were sharing the “most sensitive dossiers” on nuclear defence.
The two leaders agreed to speed up the creation of a joint control and command centre for military operations.