RIGA - French President Francois Hollande called for a new international push for a peace deal in Syria on Friday, saying the fall of Palmyra to Islamic State showed President Bashar Assad was gravely weakened.
"Once again we call for the preparation of a new Geneva," he said after an EU summit in Riga, referring to earlier conferences aimed at brokering a transition from Assad to Western-back rebels who have also lost ground to Islamic State.
"With a regime that is clearly weakened, and with a Bashar Assad who cannot be the future of Syria, we must build a new Syria which can be rid, naturally, of the regime and Bashar Assad but also, above all, of the terrorists.
