France has called an “immediate UN meeting” to discuss the “humanitarian disaster” in Syria and try to stop the government from its campaign to retake rebel held areas of Aleppo.
So what is going on here?
France claims it is concerned about civilians being harmed. However, they did not seem to be so concerned when the rebels started bombing large areas of the city in 2014 when they took the areas they hold today. France is allied with the UK, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel against the government of Syria.
France’s president Francois Hollande confirmed that his government had supplied the rebels with weapons to France24 news. These weapons have only served to further destabilise the region and increase humanitarian suffering.
Today the French are pushing for a ceasefire in Aleppo. There was a cease fire a few weeks ago, and humanitarian corridors were established so that civilians could leave and rebels surrender. Unfortunately the rebels have not surrendered and also stopped the civilians from leaving. This was widely documented, but the French seem to have missed it. If there was another cease fire, what would change? The civilians will still be trapped in terrorist controlled areas, and the terrorists will not leave. This is not a situation any civilised government would allow to continue, certainly we can in France, they did not have any humanitarian pauses during when Paris was under attack.
The Hypocrisy
France has unfortunately been the victim to several terrorist attacks in recent years. In each incident, it sent its forces to try and deal with the threat and ultimately kill the terrorists. When the terrorists attacked the Bataclan theatre in Paris, the French government sent in heavily armed soldiers and special forces to counter the threat. Sadly, they do not feel Syria should be able to do the same.
If the same groups that were in Aleppo today fighting the Syrian government, turned up in France, the French would not be thinking about going to the UN and arranging meetings. They would be immediately attacking them and trying to get rid of the terrorist threat.
So why criticise Syria for doing the same?