![French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Foreign minister of Libya Mohamed Taher Siala (not seen) hold a press conference after their meeting in the capital Tripoli, Libya on 23 July, 2018 [Hazem Turkia/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/d2.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/20180723_2_31583040_35864424-scaled.jpg?fit=920%2C655&ssl=1)
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Syrian regime President Bashar Al-Assad has won the war in Syria but he will not “win the peace” without international mediators.
Speaking to France-Inter radio, Le Drian said: “Assad won the war, we have to state this. But he hasn’t won the peace.”
He explained that France is still working with a number of countries and groups towards a political settlement in the country and “Russia is interested in a political solution in the country, because it does not want Syria to be a second Afghanistan.”
The French minister said there are nearly one million refugees in Idlib, warning that if the Assad regime wages a new military operation there the suffering would be unprecedented.
READ: UK, US, France prolonging war in Syria
The Syrian regime is heading towards Idlib in preparation for launching a military operation against opposition groups there, using tanks and heavy artillery, while Turkey has sent reinforcements to its border with Syria.
A Russian news agency has recently released a video clip showing Syrian regime forces heading to combat sites near the village of Abu Dali, in the Idlib countryside.