The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
At Tuesday’s meeting, 24 out of 29 countries attending committed to sharing information and compiling a list of individuals implicated in the use of chemical weapons in Syria and beyond.
These could then be hit with sanctions such as asset freezes and entry bans as well as criminal proceedings at the national level.
Ahead of the meeting France announced asset freezes against 25 Syrian companies and executives, as well as French, Lebanese and Chinese businesses accused of aiding regime use of chemical weapons.
“The criminals who take the responsibility for using and developing these barbaric weapons must know that they will not go unpunished,” said French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who chaired Tuesday’s meeting.
“The current situation cannot continue.”
– ‘Worst humanitarian crises’ –
Tillerson, Le Drian and Britain’s Boris Johnson afterwards held a closed-door meeting on Syria with the Saudi and Jordanian foreign ministers.
They discussed how best to “provide backing and some concrete reinforcement for UN efforts to advance the political process in Geneva, constitutional reform and the preparation for the holding of elections”, ahead of a series of meetings on Syria, a senior US State Department official said, warning that “it’s going to take time”.
Johnson later hosted his US, Saudi Arabian and UAE counterparts at the British Embassy to discuss the Yemen conflict in a whirlwind of Middle Eastern diplomacy.
“The conflicts in Syria and Yemen have created two of the worst humanitarian crises of our time,” Johnson said said ahead of the meeting.
“There can be no military solution to either conflict, only peaceful and carefully negotiated political solutions will truly end the suffering.”
The Syrian war has grown even more complex in recent days with Turkey launching a new ground operation against Kurdish militia who it considers an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Tillerson met with Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Paris on Tuesday, though he did not hold a press conference to discuss their talks.
Last week Tillerson had warned that the US would remain in Syria until the situation was stable enough to remove President Bashar al-Assad from office.
