French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Wednesday told BFM TV that his government insists that all the Iranian proxies fighting on the side of the Assad regime in Syria, including Hezbollah, must leave.
Le Drian was asked about his position on the Turkish army’s invasion of northern Syria along Turkey’s border, and answered that he wants “the withdrawal of all of those who should not be in Syria, including the Iranian militias, including Hezbollah.”
Le Drian also stated that according to every indication, suggest the Assad regime has been using chlorine against both armed forces and Syrian civilians over the past seven years since the start of the civil war.
The French FM accused both Turkey’s and Iran’s presence in Syria is a violation of international law, as well as “those who are attacking eastern Ghouta and Idlib,” which is code for Russia.
But Le Drian walked on eggshells regarding Turkey’s offensive against the Kurdish militia in northern Syria, because of the arrest of “a few hundred ” French-national jihadists who had been captured by the Kurds.
Noting that the “reports about these jihadists in an area still in the midst of a military conflict remains very complicated,” he said, “They are fighters, they are French, but they are our enemies, and the bottom line is that they will be judged by those they fought.”
The minister stated that France would only interfere in those French jihadists’ trials in Kurdish courts that result in a death sentence.