{"id":12924,"date":"2018-08-27T15:24:43","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T15:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12924"},"modified":"2018-08-27T15:24:43","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T15:24:43","slug":"iraqi-president-convenes-new-parliament-for-sept-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12924","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi president convenes new parliament for Sept. 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1362596\/middle-east\" readability=\"49\">\n<p>\nPARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that a \u201creturn to normal\u201d in Syria that left its leader Bashar Assad in power would be a \u201cgrotesque error,\u201d in comments seemingly directed at his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.<br \/>\u201cWe can see those who would like to return to normal as soon as the war against Daesh (the Daesh group) is finished: Bashar Assad would stay in power, the refugees&#8230; will return and Europe and few others would help with reconstruction,\u201d Macron said.<br \/>But \u201csuch a scenario would be a grotesque error,\u201d he added.<br \/>After coming to power in May last year, Macron shifted French policy toward prioritising the destruction of the Daesh group rather than ousting Assad, warning of a \u201cfailed state\u201d if the leader were forcibly removed.<br \/>But he has previously called the Syrian leader an \u201cenemy of the Syrian people\u201d who should ultimately face a war crimes court.<br \/>Macron\u2019s latest comments during a major foreign policy address to French ambassadors appeared to be a rebuke to Putin, who is Assad\u2019s biggest backer.<br \/>On August 18, Putin called on Europe to financially contribute to the reconstruction of Syria to allow millions of refugees to return home.<br \/>After more than seven years of brutal war, Macron warned in Monday\u2019s speech that Assad was on the verge of creating a fresh humanitarian crisis in Idlib province.<br \/>The regime says it is determined to retake the northwestern province on the Turkish border \u2014 Syria\u2019s last major rebel stronghold \u2014 amid speculation of a looming Russian-backed assault.<br \/>\u201cThe situation is alarming because the regime is threatening to create another humanitarian crisis in Idlib province and until now has shown no desire to negotiate the slightest political transition,\u201d Macron said.<br \/>\u201cThis means reinforcing pressure on the regime and its allies, and I expect Russia and Turkey to take account of their roles and the commitments they have made,\u201d he added.<br \/>\u201cSince day one I have considered Daesh to be our principal enemy, and I have never made the ousting of Bashar Assad a condition of our diplomatic or humanitarian action in Syria,\u201d he said.<br \/>But he accused Assad of \u201ccreating thousands of refugees\u201d and \u201cmassacring his own people.\u201d<br \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that a \u201creturn to normal\u201d in Syria that left its leader Bashar Assad in power would be a \u201cgrotesque error,\u201d in comments seemingly directed at his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.\u201cWe can see those who would like to return to normal as soon as the war against Daesh&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}