Clinton: Military intervention in Syria not on the agenda at Paris meeting

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not discuss arming Syrian rebels or intervening militarily in the war-racked country during a meeting Friday with French President Francois Hollande, she said.

Clinton spoke with Hollande on the margins of a Friends of Syria meeting in Paris. She urged participants in the meeting of 60 or so Western and Arab countries to press Russia and China to stop “blockading” progress in Syria and push the United Nations Security Council to take up a Syrian transition plan that U.N. Security Council members signed off on last weekend in Geneva.

“We discussed a full range of issues, but not that one,” Clinton told reporters when asked if she'd broached military options with Hollande, who was elected in May. “I think that when it comes to Syria, we do not want to further militarize this conflict. We want to bear down on the approach we are taking together, because, of course, Foreign Minister [Laurent] Fabius was a very active participant at our daylong meeting in Geneva and instrumental in helping to shape the communique that was a result of those efforts. We want to really get a maximum effort on the points that I’ve already mentioned and see how much more pressure we can apply to the regime and hasten its departure.”

She said also discussed a "wide range of other issues" with Hollande, "including Iran, Afghanistan and the eurozone, the problems in the Sahel, the upcoming conference in Tokyo for civilian support for the Afghan’s decade of transformation, and so much else. And as always, we reaffirmed the strong bonds of friendship between our two nations."

Earlier in the day, Clinton blasted China and Russia for “blockading” progress in Syria and urged the Friends of Syria to pressure them to stop. She said the Syrian opposition is united in its calls for “no travel, no trade, no comfort for this regime.”

“I ask you to reach out to Russia and China and to not only urge, but demand that they get off the sidelines and begin to support the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people,” Clinton said. “It is frankly not enough just to come to the Friends of the Syrian People, because I will tell you very frankly, I don’t think Russia and China believe they are paying any price at all — nothing at all — for standing up on behalf of the Assad regime.”