An official visit and a lifting of shields to the right. Emmanuel Macron wives the Syrian President Ahmad al-Chareh on Wednesday, May 7, on Wednesday, May 7, for a first controversial visit to the West, and will ask, on this occasion, to punish those responsible for the “abuses” to tarnish the image of the Islamist coalition in power from the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December.
The French president is strongly criticized by the French right and the extreme right for the invitation made to this man with the jihadist past, who received in the afternoon at the Elysée before a rare joint press conference.
“A big mistake”
“Stupor and consternation,” reacted the leader of the Marine Le Pen, describing the Syrian president as “a jihadist who died for Daesh and Al-Qaeda” and denouncing in the National Assembly on Tuesday “a provocation” of the head of state.
“A strong mistake,” the deputies added Les Républicins Laurent Wauquiez. For Eric Ciotti, Ahmad Al-Chareh’s invitation is “serious negligence and a real scandal.”
For others, the visit of the visiting Syrian president is necessary. “He is right to invite him and receive it. It is obviously a political risk, but it is a diplomatic gain for France,” Wassim Nasr, journalist France 24, a specialist in jihadist movements, said in BFMTV.
He recalls that “everyone approaches Ahmad al-Chareh, first, the Russians. Vladimir Putin called him twice. The only ones who send significant material aid to Syria from Ahmad al Chared, today, these are the Russians,” in particular, wheat, oil and money.
Ahmad al-Chareh “is not liberal, he is a curator,” he acknowledges the specialist, “but who has renounced everything that is jihad and global terrorism” and tries to “calm tensions” in the country.
“Without complacency”
Massacres that left 1,700 dead, mostly Alauit, in the west of the country in March, the recent battles with documented druses and abuses by the NGOs have generated doubts about the ability of the new authorities to control certain extremist combatants who are affiliated with them.
Upon receiving it, Emmanuel Macron hopes to accompany the transition to “a free, stable, sovereign and respectful Syria in the right way to all components of Syrian society”, Elysium on Tuesday.
But the French presidency has swept any “naivety”, ensuring “the past” of certain Syrian leaders and demand that there is no “complacency” with the “terrorist movements.”
Therefore, the Head of State will ask his guest “to ensure that the fight against impunity is a reality” and that “those responsible for the abuses against civilians” are “judged,” added those around him during an exchange with the press.
“Our application is that of a protection of all civilians, whatever their origin and whatever their religion,” was insisted on the same source.
“Red carpet for daesh”
The Elysée spoke of the “particularly strong concern” of France to “see extremely violent intercount confrontations resurface in Syria, particularly with the” massacres “on the coast of Alaouite and the” violence of the Druce community in southern Damascus. “
“Not initiating dialogue with these transition authorities”, “would be irresponsible for the French and especially would be a red carpet for Daesh,” also estimated French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot in RTL. According to him, “the fight against terrorism, the domain of migratory flows, the domain of drug trafficking”, as well as “the future of Lebanon”, “all this is played in Syria.”
Since he took power in December, the Islamist coalition directed by Ahmad Al-Chareh has been trying to present a reassuring face to the international community that urges it to respect freedoms and protect minorities. In the game, the lifting of the sanctions imposed in the power of Bashar al-Assad, which weighs largely in the country’s economy, exsangue after 14 years of civil war, according to the UN, 90% of the Syrians who live below the poverty line.
President Al-Chareh, a long rebel leader of the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group of the former Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, is always led by a UN prohibition. Paris had to request a United Nations exemption to allow its arrival.
But if you have supported the lifting of certain sector sanctions of the European Union, and judges that US punitive measures “weigh on the capacity of the transition authorities to embark on a logic of reconstruction and attract foreign investments,” France considers that the moment has not yet reached the Syrian leader of the list of UN sanctions Security Council.
Source: BFM TV
