Brussels, 22/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 22 April, the HighRepresentative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, and the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said that inter-Syrian political negotiations had entered the “danger zone”. On 19 April, the principal leaders of the opposition in the High Committee of negotiations decided to postpone their involvement in the talks indefinitely in protest at the worsening security situation in Syria.
“The political negotiations have entered the danger zone (…), we are determined to ensure that this is not the case and that the Syrian parties engage constructively with (UN Special Envoy) Staffan de Mistura, to start a process of political transition”, Mogherini stressed at a joint press conference in Paris (our translation throughout).
“The process has to be given every chance of succeeding”, Ayrault stressed. “We cannot allow the situation to worsen and take the risk that an end be put to the negotiations”, added the minister, stressing that every partner country had a part to play. He expressed his hopes that the international support group for Syria would meet “as soon as possible”, because “given that the peace process has been weakened, we need to act to relaunch it”.
The French diplomacy also stressed that the cessation of hostilities had to be fully respected, which is “unfortunately no longer the case”. He said that a ceasefire was an “essential stage” and that care should be taken to avoid “the risk of moving backwards”. The violations of the cessations of hostilities have been going on for several weeks.
Mogherini and Ayrault also reiterated the importance of humanitarian access in Syria. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)