On the night of 1 September 2013 France was about to attack Syria. The military action was called off at the last moment – after President Hollande received a phone call from Washington by Prez Obama. This was exposed by the newspaper Nouvel Observateur, a weekly publication in France with a distribution of 500.000.
The preparations for a military strike had started on the morning of 31 August according to the paper, after the White House had announced that President Obama would call his French counterpart Francois Hollande in the evening about an important issue. Because Hollande believed Obama would ask for the beginning of an intervention in Syria, the French head of state then alerted the Military and was ready to order the attack at 3 am.
Would US-President Obama have given the command, Rafale bombers would have taken off for attacks at 03:00 on 1 September. Syrian missile batteries and chemical warfare command centers would have been the main targets.
But President Hollande had to call off the warcrime, after Obama called and announced a postponement of the intervention and instead announced a debate in Congress instead. Two weeks later, Russia and the U.S. agreed on a plan to internationally controlled destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons.
French government officials had statements ready for when the strike starts, and the French intelligence had prepared a declassified report with evidence showing chemical weapons were used on August 21 in Damascus.
After receiving indications from the US that the strike was imminent in the days leading up to the US president’s announcement, Obama called Hollande on Saturday August 31 at 6:15 p.m., telling him he had decided to ask for Congress’s approval before going ahead with the strike.
The french President Hollande was stunned, the paper reported, and tried to convince Obama to reconsider, but was unsuccessful.
On Friday, August 30 Hollande still wanted to push ahead with military action in Syria – despite Britain’s decision to withdraw from a potential attack and told the daily Le Monde that he supported taking “firm” punitive action over an attack that he said had caused “irreparable” harm to the Syrian people.
Asked if France could take action without Britain, Hollande replied: “Yes. Each country is sovereign to participate or not in an operation. That is valid for Britain as it is for France.”
The International community has to consider the following:
The definition of what constitutes a war crime is described by the Nuremberg principles as such:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_principles
Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace
Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace.
http://de.ria.ru/politics/20130930/266979828.html
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/France-was-ready-for-Syria-strike-when-Obama-decided-to-seek-Congresss-approval-327421
