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France Sends Funds to 5 Syrian Civic Groups France Sends Funds to 5 Syrian Civic Groups
(35 minutes later)
PARIS — The French government is providing funds to five revolutionary councils in rebel-held parts of Syria to help them restore water supplies, sanitation, health services and bakeries, a senior French diplomat, Éric Chevallier, said Thursday.PARIS — The French government is providing funds to five revolutionary councils in rebel-held parts of Syria to help them restore water supplies, sanitation, health services and bakeries, a senior French diplomat, Éric Chevallier, said Thursday.
French diplomats say that France is not supplying funds for weapons or providing weapons to the rebels, which are made up of a number of disparate groups and are separate from the councils. But they say they are in regular conversation with the rebels, to hear their needs and to encourage them to unite and to protect minorities and democratic values. France also wants to ensure the support of the armed rebels for the program of aid to the civilian councils, the diplomats say. French diplomats say that France is not supplying funds for weapons or providing weapons to rebel Free Syrian Army, an umbrella for a number of disparate groups that are separate from the councils. But they say they are in regular conversation with the rebels, to hear their needs and to encourage them to unite and to protect minorities and democratic values. France also wants to ensure the support of the armed rebels for the program of aid to the civilian councils, the diplomats say.
Mr. Chevallier, who was withdrawn as France’s ambassador to Syria in March and is in charge of Syria at the French Foreign Ministry, said in an interview that President François Hollande decided last Wednesday to start the initiative. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius mentioned it the next day at the United Nations Security Council, and “on Friday morning, we started to deliver this support to these revolutionary councils.” The fighting between Mr. Assad’s forces and the rebels continued to flare in hot spots around the country, with opposition groups reporting at least 67 dead. The groups described heavy shelling and gunfire in the suburbs of Damascus, especially south of the city, and the storming of a town near the Jordanian border, stirring fears that the Syrian military might seek to dam the torrent of refugees crossing into Jordan.
It is “an important but imperfect beginning,” he said, to supporting civilian authorities who are filling the vacuum left when Syrian government forces are forced to withdraw. France is not promoting military action to help armed rebels, as it did in Libya, partly because the opposition is so divided and because there is no Security Council resolution mandating the use of military force. Mr. Chevallier, who was withdrawn as France’s ambassador to Syria in March and is in charge of Syria at the French Foreign Ministry, said in an interview that President François Hollande decided last Wednesday to start the civic initiative. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius mentioned it the next day at the United Nations Security Council, and “on Friday morning, we started to deliver this support to these revolutionary councils.”
But France, the former colonial power in Syria, is eager to be seen to be on the side of the rebels inside Syria and not just aiding refugees. Paris is acting more openly than other Western nations, like the United States, which has also been providing some nonlethal assistance, like radios, to the rebels. It is “an important but imperfect beginning,” he said, to supporting civilian authorities who are filling the vacuum left in areas where the Syrian government is not functioning. France is not promoting military action to help armed rebels, as it did in Libya, partly because the opposition is so divided and because there is no Security Council resolution mandating the use of military force.
The five local revolutionary councils in the French program are in cities in three governates in the north and east — Aleppo, Idlib and Deir al-Zour — that cover 700,000 people. According to the French, the council leaders include a former train driver and a former mathematics professor. Officials would not be precise about the amount of money involved but one official suggested that the projected was about 5 million euros, or $6.3 million, only some of which is immediately being spent. The French said they were monitoring the use of the funds through trusted Syrians who had been working with the French for more than a year. But France, the former colonial power in Syria, is eager to be seen to be on the side of the rebels inside Syria and not just aiding refugees. Paris is acting more openly than other Western nations, like the United States, which has also been providing some nonlethal assistance, like radios, to the rebels. Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are providing military and other aid directly to the rebels.
The five local revolutionary councils in the French program are in cities in three governates in the north and east — Aleppo, Idlib and Deir al-Zour — where fighting continues to flare but rebels control areas holding 700,000 people. According to the French, the council leaders include a former train driver and a former mathematics professor. Officials would not be precise about the amount of money involved but one official suggested that the projected was about 5 million euros, or $6.3 million, only some of which is immediately being spent. The French said they were monitoring the use of the funds through trusted Syrians who had been working with the French for more than a year.
The diplomats say that he local authorities and fighters have asked for better antiaircraft weapons to protect themselves from the Syrian air force, and that while France has so far refused to provide any lethal military assistance, the requests are being taken seriously.The diplomats say that he local authorities and fighters have asked for better antiaircraft weapons to protect themselves from the Syrian air force, and that while France has so far refused to provide any lethal military assistance, the requests are being taken seriously.
Mr. Hollande has urged the divided Syrian opposition to unite and form a provisional government, promising that France would recognize such a government as legitimate as soon as it can be established. And Mr. Fabius, the foreign minister, has been vocal in denouncing the government of President Bashar al-Assad as illegitimate.Mr. Hollande has urged the divided Syrian opposition to unite and form a provisional government, promising that France would recognize such a government as legitimate as soon as it can be established. And Mr. Fabius, the foreign minister, has been vocal in denouncing the government of President Bashar al-Assad as illegitimate.
Last month, visiting a refugee camp for Syrians on the Turkish border, Mr. Fabius said: “The Syrian regime should be smashed fast. 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.”Last month, visiting a refugee camp for Syrians on the Turkish border, Mr. Fabius said: “The Syrian regime should be smashed fast. 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.”
Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are providing military and other aid directly to the rebels. Floods of refugees have increased in recent weeks. Turkey recently raised the ceiling on the number it would admit to 120,000 from 100,000. The Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees says that around the region, a total of about 200,000 refugees have registered to receive its assistance. It says that Jordan, a nation of six million, has taken in more than 180,000 fleeing Syrians, and that only a minority have registered with the agency.
The storming of the town of Tal Shehab, near the Jordanian border, was the latest step in a sweeping military campaign carried out by aircraft and ground troops seeking to wipe out support for the uprising against Mr. Assad around its birthplace in the nearby city of Dara’a. Refugees and aid workers inside the Jordanian border nearby have said that the opposition fighters have kept open as many as four border crossings for refugees, but that Syrian soldiers frequently shoot at those fleeing and occasionally succeed in reducing the nightly exodus to just 700 from peaks that have been as high as 5,000 in 36 hours.
The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group that tracks the violence, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group based in Britain, reported heavy fighting in the suburbs of Damascus, where the Syrian Army is shelling neighborhoods considered havens for the opposition. They said there was street fighting and shelling in Tadamon and areas south of the city.
By early afternoon, the coordination committees reported a count of 41 bodies in the Damascus area, including 23 in the neighborhood of Zamalka and 5 in the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees.
And fighting continued around Aleppo, Dara’a and Deir al-Zour, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said this week that rebel fighters had taken control of parts of an airport.
The fighting took place as three United States senators were completing a visit to Iraq, where they pressed its top government officials for support in the effort to topple Mr. Assad. Iraq, with a Shiite Muslim majority that may look warmly toward Shiite Iran and the Shiite-allied Alawite sect around Mr. Assad, has reportedly allowed Iranian airplanes to cross Iraqi airspace carrying supplies to the Assad government in potential violations of an arms embargo, although Iraqi officials say the Iranians have assured them any Iranian cargo is for humanitarian use.
“The U.S. must make real our strategic partnership w/Baghdad, esp. as Syria crisis worsens,” Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, wrote in an online posting after meeting with the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Mr. Lieberman was accompanied by his customary traveling partners, the Republican senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who call themselves “the three amigos.”

Steven Erlanger reported from Paris and David D. Kirkpatrick from Beirut, Lebanon.