PARIS: The Syrian conflict has become a threat to international peace and security, French President Francois Hollande told a Friends of Syria meeting on Friday, appealing to Russia to back regime change.
"It is no longer debatable that this crisis has become a threat to international peace and security," Hollande told the international meeting, which is not attended by staunch Syria allies Russia and China.
"So we have to draw the conclusions. Bashar Assad must go. A government of transition must be created. It's in everyone's interests.
"To those who maintain also that Bashar Assad's regime, as dislikeable as it is, can avoid chaos, I tell them that they will have both the most dislikeable regime and chaos. And this chaos will threaten their interests."
Russia, whose only Mediterranean naval port is in Syria, has twice blocked U.N. Security Council action on the Syrian conflict.