Eurozone leaders reach debt agreement
Posted January 31, 2012 7:56 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Tuesday welcomed the agreement struck at a European Union summit to rein in euro zone member countries’ debts and deficits.
The agreement also calls for tough action to be taken to stop violence in Syria, where he says thousands have died since the start of an uprising.
“This agreement is wonderful, I say it because I really believe that it is the truth,” he told Europe 1 radio of the deal struck by all European Union member states with the exception of the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic.
Juppe, who will be travelling to New York to press for Security Council sanctions against Syria, said he was hopeful he would be able to overcome Russian objections to action by the United Nations’ supreme body.
“We are blocked by a certain number of countries, mainly by Russia which is blocking all resolutions,” he said.
Asked if he was hopeful he could get Russia to shift its position, Juppe answered: “We’re going to try. And what has moved and what has changed is the Arab League. The Arab League has made a plan that calls for a political transition and the removal of Bashar al Assad who has lost all his legitimacy, so the reason I’m going to New York with all our allies and the Arab countries, it is to press for this violence to be stopped.”
