France: Syria faces perpetual war unless Russia extends ceasefire

France warned Monday (Sep. 24) Syria faces a future of perpetual war unless Russia agrees to turn the one-month ceasefire in Idlib into a wider UN-endorsed political agreement, Guardian reported.

The French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, issued the warning at the start of a week of summit meetings at the UN general assembly.

Le Drian said France was prepared to back a Turkish bid to win UN security council endorsement of the Idlib deal, but only if it includes wider political plans to end the eight-year war.

He said Bashar al-Assad, “may have won the war, but he has not won the peace, and unless he wins the peace, there will be war”.

Le Drian said the deal, agreed by Putin and Erdogan in the Black Sea resort of Sochi last week had many flaws including the absence of an explicit Assad regime endorsement.

The French minister said it “does not bring the war to an end, and nothing assures us that the Assad regime will play along”.

Speaking at a briefing at the start of the assembly, Le Drian said: “It is the responsibility of Bashar al-Assad, but also those that support him to seek a political solution. Otherwise we risk seeing a form of perpetual war.”