The head of the French State took a decisive step with regard to Syria during his press conference of November 13th.
Thus, in his words, France has recognized the Syrian Coalition, the result of the meeting in Doha and the unification of various elements of the resistance to Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship, as the "sole representative of the Syrian people" and the precursor of a future "government of democratic Syria."
We are, therefore, the first Western country to recognize this resistance as the legitimate and legal representative of Syria, much as Nicolas Sarkozy did in March, 2011 for the Libyan NTC. The effect and consequence of this is that France (and any other country that may imitate it), now has the right and the liberty, from the point of view of international legality, to aid and to arm this new legitimate body of power.
France and its eventual allies no longer need a resolution from the international community to do so; it is no longer compelled to wait for a specific motion from the United Nations Security Council in order to act. We are done with the Russian and Chinese vetoes that block the right to intervene within the borders of a State considered master in its own domain, even if and including when this sovereignty no longer signifies anything but the right to dispose of its own people and to massacre them.
Better still, an in virtue of the logic that follows this recognition, François Hollande has adequate grounds to demand that the United Nations see to it that liberated zones, controlled by the new power, be declared sanctuary without delay.
The words have finally been said. It has taken long months of incessant bloodshed and a political and humanitarian disaster the breadth of which no one could possibly have imagined or foreseen to bring an end to the wait-and-see policy, the non-interventionism, and the regime of crocodile tears.
Now we are waiting for the acts which will be the correlate to this courageous declaration we had expected.
From France, but also from the rest of the international community, with the Arab countries and the United States first and foremost, we are waiting and hoping for decisions that will correspond to our underlying motivations, our thoughts, and, from now on, our commitments. Canons, anti-aircraft missiles, defensive weapons for Aleppo, Homs, and the rest of Free Syria.