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At U.N., François Hollande Is Likely to Focus on Climate François Hollande of France Says Assad Must Go
(1 day later)
President François Hollande of France is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Monday. The New York Times’s Paris bureau chief, Alissa J. Rubin, looks at what message he has for international leaders, and how it might be received. President François Hollande of France told the United Nations General Assembly on Monday that his country would “shoulder its responsibilities” in global efforts to end the fighting in Syria, but that the conflict could be resolved only if President Bashar al-Assad was removed from power.
The French president will focus almost entirely on the United Nations’ climate conference, which is being held in Paris two months after the General Assembly meeting. France mounted its first airstrikes against the Islamic State militants in Syria over the weekend.
For Mr. Hollande, this will be an opportunity to cajole, guilt-trip and persuade fellow heads of state to come forward with pledges to reduce their carbon emissions and move toward renewable energy sources. Mr. Hollande told the Assembly that to blame only the Islamic State for the massacres of civilians in Syria would be to pardon “the regime that created this organization.” The millions of refugees from Syria who have flooded into neighboring countries and into Europe are not only “fleeing a war, but fleeing the regime of Bashar al-Assad,” he said.
If Mr. Hollande could win major commitments from United Nations member states, it would lead to a successful conference and would be a political victory at home as he goes into an election year. It would also raise France’s international stature on the environment. “Assad is the origin of this problem, and cannot be part of the solution,” Mr. Hollande said.
In a news conference on Sept. 7, Mr. Hollande said he regarded the General Assembly meeting as a chance to turn “good intentions” into something more concrete, and he made clear that, as difficult as it might be, he wanted to see more in the way of commitments. His comments seemed directed at Russia, which has recently stepped up its support for Mr. Assad and has proposed resolving the conflict through talks between his government and opposition groups while an international coalition battles the Islamic State. In a speech earlier on Monday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia warned that ousting Mr. Assad would be a mistake.
“We are still a long way from a binding accord,” he said, adding that it was necessary to “jump-start” the effort to reduce carbon emissions and focus the world on the climate issue. Without mentioning Russia by name, Mr. Hollande also criticized its efforts to shield the Syrian government from action by the Security Council. “In cases of mass atrocities,” he said, “the veto should not be used.” Only the council’s five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — wield vetoes.
In addition to his address on Monday, he is scheduled to meet with the leaders of at least six nations to discuss climate issues and other concerns. For instance, in his meeting with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, Mr. Hollande is likely to discuss the recent nuclear agreement and economic opportunities for French companies. Speaking to reporters later in the day, Mr. Hollande said that any resolution to the Syrian conflict must put a stop to the government’s use of barrel bombs on populated areas, and must exclude Mr. Assad from any transitional government. The French president also said he had met with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey to discuss Turkey’s idea of establishing a safe zone in Syria for refugees from the conflict.
He is also likely to mention the war in Syria. Though France has agreed in principle to accept more refugees from Syria than other European countries have, it has been slow to begin the process, and few refugees seem to want to go there. Mr. Hollande did not address specific numbers of refugees or a timetable in his speech on Monday.
One issue that Mr. Hollande might mention only briefly is the flood of migrants into Europe and the fact that France has been one of the least desirable destinations for asylum seekers. While France has agreed to take more asylum seekers than any country other than Germany, the process has barely started, and even if the migrants, most of them Muslim, are granted asylum, it is unclear whether the French will welcome them. He did say that the current refugee crisis was partly of the West’s making, because too little was done to help refugees who fled from Syria to neighboring Middle East countries earlier in the war.
Conservative nationalist politicians in France, as elsewhere in Europe, have gained ground as migrants continue to stream to the Continent. Mr. Hollande also discussed environmental issues and an international conference on reducing greenhouse gas emissions that is scheduled to take place in Paris in December. He said the world must ask itself one question: “Humankind — is it capable of deciding that we will preserve life on this planet?”