Brussels, 11/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - Although the UN Security Council is planning sanctions against Damascus, an additional two days have been given to the Syrian government to carry out its military withdrawal, initially promised for 10 April. The ALDE Group of the European Parliament is getting rather impatient with all this. Its leader, Guy Verhofstadt from Belgium, interprets this snub by Syria to the international community as the failure of diplomacy and presses for urgent humanitarian action under military protection. On Wednesday 11 April he blew his top and made a direct appeal to Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
In a press release, Verhofstadt said: “It is now up to Baroness Ashton to urgently meet with her international counterparts and provide military protection to help civilian refugees by means of an enforceable humanitarian aid corridor. We expect Baroness Ashton to come to the European Parliament next week and set out a comprehensive plan for setting up an effective humanitarian protection of civilians in Syria. What is certain is that the EU and international partners cannot just sit back and be ignored - watching as Assad effectively mocks them by carrying on 'business as usual' with his slaughter. Diplomacy is not a substitute for policy; Assad has exposed the failure of the EU and the UN to deal with the Syrian crisis. The EU needs a high representative that deals with foreign policy and not foreign relations.” (AN/transl.fl)