French Opposition Urges U.N. Mandate for Attack

PARIS—French President François Hollande sought to rally French lawmakers behind his plans to punish the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but ran into a barrage of criticism for considering military action without a United Nations mandate.

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Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, during extraordinary parliamentary sessions called to discuss the Syrian crisis, explained why France had proposed to join the U.S. and attack Syria in retaliation for what the U.S. and France say was the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime.
The officials repeated that Paris had independently gathered what French authorities regard as irrefutable evidence that Mr. Assad’s forces have repeatedly used Sarin gas and other lethal gases against civilians and rebel groups. Syrian officials deny the regime used chemical weapons.
The French president has the authority to engage force overseas without seeking prior parliamentary approval. His only constitutional duty is to inform lawmakers within three days after the start of military action.
Many lawmakers said Mr. Hollande couldn’t avoid organizing a vote after U.S. President Barack Obama opted to take the issue to Congress.
Mr. Fabius, the foreign minister, said Wednesday that although a vote wasn’t necessary, the government hadn’t ruled out holding one.
“It’s a possibility,” he told French radio.
Yet in both houses of parliament, opposition leaders have lashed out at Mr. Hollande for considering using force against Syria without having exhausted all diplomatic avenues.
However convincing the evidence against the Assad regime, France can’t bypass the U.N. Security Council, said Christian Jacob, head of the UMP center-right group at the National Assembly. “Can France seriously rush headlong without European allies into such an adventure? We think the answer is no,” Mr. Jacob said.
Mr. Hollande has vowed to punish Syria even without the approval of the Security Council, where permanent member Russia has blocked support for action against its Syrian ally.
The French president was thrown into uncomfortable diplomatic and political terrain last week when U.S. President Barack Obama made the unexpected decision to put the issue of military action to Congress.
After days of saber-rattling, Mr. Hollande was forced to pull back from the brink and put strike plans on hold because Paris isn’t willing to act alone in Syria. The U.K. withdrew as a potential ally last week when parliament voted against action.
Mr. Obama’s hesitation also gave France’s opposition leaders time to scrutinize and criticize Mr. Hollande’s handling of the Syrian crisis.
Opposition lawmakers said on Wednesday that sidestepping the U.N. would create a dangerous precedent for France, which was critical of the U.S.-led intervention in Iraq in 2003 and was careful to couch recent military actions—in Ivory Coast, Libya and Mali—in Security Council resolutions.
“What would be the international legality of strikes in Syria?” asked center-right senator and former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
French officials initially insisted on the need for securing a U.N. mandate for any military action in Syria, where France ruled in the wake of World War I.
In recent weeks, however, Mr. Hollande began to edge away from that position, arguing that international law should “evolve with the times” rather than shielding the Assad regime.
—Gabriele Parussini contributed to this article.

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