Sooner end of Assad is better: French FM

KILIS

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (2nd R), with Kilis Gov Süleyman Tapsız (3rd-L), meets with Syrian children at a kindergarten during a visit to the Öncüpinar refugee camp in the southeastern province. Fabius calls for an end to the Syrian regime. AFP photo

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime should be “smashed fast,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said as he visited Turkey’s largest refugee camp in Kilis Aug. 17.

“The Syrian regime should be smashed fast,” Fabius told reporters. “After hearing the refugees and their account of the massacres of the regime, Mr. Bashar al-Assad doesn’t deserve to be on this earth.” “It is an operation of destruction of an entire people that he is trying to accomplish.”

Fabius made the remarks at a refugee camp near the Öncüpınar border crossing in Kilis province, where he met a number of Syrian refugees appealing to France for weapons and aid to fight the Syrian regime.
Accompanied by Kilis Governor Süleyman Tapsız, Fabius talked with the Syrians and listened to their remarks. Fabius’ meeting with the Syrians in Kilis lasted around 20 minutes. The minister left Kilis after a brief stop at the Öncüpınar Border Gate.

The Öncüpınar camp is one of several refugee settlements in Turkey’s border provinces and houses around 12,000 people in prefabricated buildings.

During his regional tour in Jordan and Lebanon, Fabius had renewed calls for al-Assad to go in the face of the relentless onslaught against Syrian civilians and predicted more “spectacular” defections to come soon.

The foreign minister was expected to fly to Ankara later in the day for talks with his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoğlu, on the Syria crisis.

Compiled from AA and AFP stories by the Daily News staff.