France Demands UN to Enforce Annan Plan

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says he will call on the UN Security Council to make mediator Kofi Annan’s Syria peace plan mandatory.

France would propose that  Annan’s six-point plan be enforced under the UN’s Chapter Seven provision, he said.

Fabius told a news conference in Paris that the conflict in Syria had become a “civil war”.

His remarks echoed the words of the head of UN peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous, on Tuesday.

A Chapter Seven resolution in the Security Council would allow for action to be backed up by force, which fellow council members Russia and China would be unlikely to accept. But Fabius said he hoped that Russia would agree to the proposal.

It was necessary “to resort to Chapter Seven to make the provisions of the Annan plan mandatory,” he said.

“We are working towards this and hope that this move will be swiftly implemented.”

Earlier, Syrian forces seized control of the western mountain town of Haffa after fierce fighting with rebels. State media said Haffa had been “purged of terrorists” and government forces had “restored security and calm to the area”, according to BBC.

The rebel Free Syrian Army said it had pulled its fighters out of the area to spare residents from further massive bombardments.