France investigates Asaad’s crimes against humanity

PARIS, France-French authorities have launched a criminal probe of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for alleged war crimes committed between 2011 and 2013, sources said.

French President Francois Hollande echoed Obama’s call in his United Nations speech, but Putin – a long-time Assad ally – dismissed their pleas, saying they “should not be involved in choosing the leadership of another country“.

The budget is the first under President Francois Hollande to meet the government’s deficit targets.

Two diplomats told The Associated Press that this time, instead of making demands on Iran, as was the case at the nuclear talks, the Europeans want Tehran to work with them, the Americans, Russians and Chinese on finding a peace formula.

The Syrian war has left a few 250,000 people dead, and world leaders have accused Assad’s military of killing far more Syrians than IS has by dropping barrel bombs in civilian areas – charges the government has denied, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

“The objective of these de-confliction discussions will be to ensure that ongoing coalition air operations are not interrupted by any future Russian military activity, to ensure the safety of coalition air crews and to avoid misjudgment and miscalculation”, he added.

Al-Jubeir implicitly criticized the USA and other opponents of the Assad regime for sparking the current exodus of thousands of Syrians to Europe to escape the conflict.

The investigation will focus on a report published a year ago by three former war crimes prosecutors which accused the Syrian government of systematically torturing and executing about 11,000 detainees since the start of the uprising against Mr Assad’s rule in March 2011.

Sergey Lavrov spoke Wednesday to the United Nations Security Council shortly after Russia’s defense ministry announced its jets are carrying out airstrikes on Islamic State group positions in Syria. On Wednesday, Putin received permission from Russia’s parliament to deploy troops overseas – potentially to Syria.

Al-Jubeir dismissed widespread belief that Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia is in an intense battle with Shiite Iran to be the dominant power in the Middle East.