The French president in an interview with El Pais (22 JUN 2017) said that the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power is no longer a priority in resolving the Syrian crisis.

“France no longer sees the displacement of Assad as a priority for anything as well as I do not see who could become his legitimate successor,” Macron said.

Here and on this occasion, the French president also called on the countries to concentrate on the fighting terrorism. He stressed it is necessary to work out an entirely new plan of actions in Syria. Special attentions, he said, must be dwelt on the allies of Assad adding that combating the threat of terrorism effectively requires the active participation of all the parties, and especially Russia.

During the interview, Macron allowed himself to criticize Barack Obama for not keeping promises. Namely, the former U.S. President announced a tough answer in case Assad would cross the so-called Red Line. At the same time, the president of France hinted that the country is ready to launch air strikes on Syria without the U.S. support.

It turns out that the French president contradicts himself when he claims that there is no real evidence of the Syrian president’s involvement in chemical attacks.

“If the evidence of the use of chemical weapons arose,… and we would know who used it and where this weapon came from, France will respond immediately by carrying out airstrikes,” Macron said.

The second question also is how could the world community compete to accuse Assad then? Indeed, Emmanuel Macron made it clear that there are no real reasons for this as of today. The absence of chemical weapons in the hands of the Syrian president was claimed by the OPCW as early as in 2014.

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Sophie Mangal is a special investigative correspondent and co-editor at Inside Syria Media Center.

All images in this article are from the author.