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Syria truce can enable transition from Assad, say European leaders European leaders urge Russia to maintain Syria ceasefire
(35 minutes later)
European leaders have told the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, that a fragile truce in Syria must be used to try to secure a lasting peace without Bashar al-Assad, David Cameron’s spokeswoman has said. European leaders including David Cameron have urged Russia to maintain the ceasefire in Syria so peace talks which they hope will eventually lead to President Bashar al-Assad stepping down can go ahead as early as next week.
In a phone call on Friday between the British prime minister, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the French president, François Hollande, the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, and Putin, the leaders agreed that the cessation of hostilities must hold. The British prime minister, French president, François Hollande, German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi held a 50-minute call with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Friday morning.
“The main point that the European leaders made on the call to Putin was that we welcome the fact that this fragile truce appears to be holding,” the spokeswoman told reporters. Cameron’s spokeswoman said he had stressed to Putin the importance of using the opportunity created by the ceasefire to press forward with a formal peace process. This could begin with talks in Geneva from the end of next week and end with “a transition away from Assad”.
“We have got to use this as a positive dynamic now to create some momentum behind the talks … so we can move from a truce into a more lasting durable peace with a political transition away from Assad.” “We welcome the fact that this fragile truce appears to be holding,” she said, adding that Downing Street hoped the ceasefire could last long enough for the process outlined in the Vienna peace agreement, struck late last year, to begin in earnest.
More details soon … “Everybody on the call had a common interest in defeating Daesh in Syria and tackling the Islamist threat, and therefore it is in all our interest to support a peace process in the country that can lead to a stable, inclusive government that has the support of all Syrians,” she said.
The leaders also discussed the need to get humanitarian aid to besieged towns in Syria; and to improve conditions sufficiently to allow refugees who had fled the fighting to return home.
The foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, is discussing the Syrian situation with his French counterpart in Paris on Friday.