French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius’s strenuous efforts to abort the Syrian Opposition Coordinating Body Conference didn’t contrast with the French policy..

Nidal Hmedeh / Geneva

French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius's strenuous efforts to abort the Syrian Opposition Coordinating Body Conference didn't contrast with the French policy. France supports those calling for foreign military intervention in Syria, and those seeking destruction inside the Arab country by arming and funding the extremist militants in their destructive war against Syria, the symbol of civilization, nation and people.

Laurent Fabius rejects, boycotts and fights Haytham Manna through the Foreign Ministry, and the French Ambassador to Damascus who stays in Doha more than in Paris, and represents the French guardian on the Syrian Opposition Body ever since establishing the National Council and designating Burhan Ghalioun as its president; not to mention the coalition based on the National Council's remnants, which depleted its missions without being able to implement the colonial Gulf tribal project in Syria.

Unexpectedly, Laurent Fabius held a conference on Syria on January 28. The conference, on purpose, coincided with the same date of the Coordination Body Conference in Geneva. It didn’t clarify a schedule, yet it supported both the Coalition and the Council. The Conference promised that France, involved in Mali war, will continue supporting, funding and receiving members of the Coalition and the Council on its land, as well as boycotting their opponents in the other Syrian Opposition groups, especially Haytham Manna who has been residing in Paris since more than thirty years. Fabius's pressures didn't only end with the same-timing conference, but also he forced Switzerland to deny submitting visas to almost 70 guests scheduled to attend the conference, according to Manna.

Within the political interests and the game of nations regarding Syria, some in the French Foreign Ministry consider Haytham Manna a critical obstacle in front of legalizing foreign intervention in Syria, especially on the military level. It is no secret for the followers of relations between the Syrian community in the French Foreign Ministry and the Head of the Coordinating Body abroad, "Haytham Manna,” that the latter had refused, two years ago, an armament process in Syria, as well as a Western, Gulf and Turkish interventions in the country.

Manna and the Body's openness on Tehran and Moscow is one main reason of the Syrian department's hostility toward them in the French Foreign Ministry. Even if some in the ministry don't mind Manna's visits to Moscow, still his relation with Iran and his visits to Tehran represent one of France's red lines, which in turn requires that Manna, the most famous human rights activist in the Arab World, who opposes foreign interventions in Syria, must be confronted.

France, the newly involved in Mali war which it expects to be a tough long-term one, is playing during the time lost with the time-lost coalition. However, the events of Mali war which obliged France to downfall, will lead it to great change whose main victims will be those whom it had invited to a meeting of spites, which lacked clear schedule and horizon.

Translated by Zeinab Abdallah