France and Britain warned the United Nations that the envoys were unlikely to reach an agreement on buffer zones in Syria.

France and Britain warned the United Nations that the envoys were unlikely to reach an agreement on buffer zones in Syria.

British foreign Secretary William Hague held a joint news conference with France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to warn that there are "considerable difficulties" with the idea of “protected enclaves for civilians.”

However Hague said that all options still on the table, warning that forming buffer zones requires military intervention which should be carefully mulled.
"We are excluding no option for the future. We do not know how this crisis will develop."

"It is steadily getting worse. We are ruling nothing out, we have contingency planning for a wide range of scenarios.”
"But we also have to be clear that anything like a safe zone requires military intervention and that of course is something that has to be weighed very carefully," Hague added.

For his part, Fabius said Paris and London were in "complete unity ... on this point".

Following the news conference, the UN said any proposals to set up to secure safe zones raised "serious questions" and would need to be studied carefully.

"Such proposals raise serious questions and require careful and critical consideration," said UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson.