Britain has warned that the escalating Aleppo crisis in Syria could lead to a "devastating loss of civilian life and a humanitarian disaster".
Syrian people leave the city of Aleppo after shelling by Syrian government forces Photo: BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
1:48PM BST 27 Jul 2012
The Telegraph
William Hague's comments were echoed by France who said Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, is prepared to carry out a "slaughter" of his own people in Aleppo, France has warned.
Mr Hague, the foreign secretary, said: “This utterly unacceptable escalation of the conflict could lead to a devastating loss of civilian life and a humanitarian disaster. It will add to the misery being endured by the Syrian people, and plunge the country further into catastrophic civil war.
“The Assad regime must call off this assault. I call on all countries around the world, including the Permanent Members of the Security Council, to join us in condemning these latest actions and to insist on a political process to end the violence in Syria. All those with influence on the Syrian regime should bring it to bear now. No nation should stand silent while people in Aleppo are threatened with a potential massacre."
Bernard Valero, a French foreign ministry spokesman, said: "With the build-up of heavy weapons around Aleppo, Assad is preparing to carry out a fresh slaughter of his own people." The US State Department on Thursday warned that Assad may be preparing to carry out a massacre following "credible reports" that columns of tanks, helicopter gunships and warplanes were being readied for an assault on the city.
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Valero said France shared US concerns over the rapidly deteriorating situation in Aleppo and called on Assad to end the violence and step down.
"Our message is that Assad must go," he said.
Aleppo, Syria's most populous city and also the country's commercial hub, has been the theatre of fierce fighting between the opposition and Assad's forces for the last week.
On Thursday Syrian troops reportedly strafed several neighbourhoods of Aleppo from helicopter gunships, after an MP defected to Turkey.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army was using helicopter gunships in the southwest of the city, in the Salaheddin, Bustan al-Qasr, Sukari, Al-Mashhad and Al-Azamiya neighbourhoods.
Troops also clashed with rebels in the central Jamiliya district, adjacent to Aleppo's historic old quarter, as well as in Mahatat Baghdad and in Saadallah al-Jabiri Square.
Earlier, MP Ikhlas al-Badawi, said she had cross to Turkey "and defected from this tyrannical regime ... because of the repression and savage torture against a nation demanding the minimum of rights."
Opposition sources Syrian troops and armour are amassing around the northern city of Aleppo, Syrian's main commercial and industrial hub, to crush armed resistance to Assad that has been gathering momentum following a military crackdown on street demonstrations against his rule.
The authorities chose Badawi, a Sunni Muslim, to run for parliament on behalf of the "labourers and peasants" sector, a term for state backed labour and farmers unions who are guaranteed half the seats in the 250 seat assembly.
Badawi, a mother of six, was also a member of the Ba’ath party, which took power in 1963 military coup that destroyed the country's democratic institutions in favour of a Soviet style political system dominated by Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
Intensified ground and aerial bombardment on Syrian cities by Assad's forces in recent weeks has prompted diehard Baathists and Assad's loyalists to defect.
They have been mostly Sunni Muslim, from the majority sect at the forefront of the 16-month uprising against Assad.
Nawaf al-Fares, Syria's ambassador to Iraq and a former Ba’ath party chief in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, fled to Qatar through Jordan two weeks ago.
Fares, according to opposition sources, is a friend of Manaf Tlas, a brigadier general in the Republican Guards and a member of Assad's inner circle, who fled Syria earlier this month.
Source: agencies
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