Syria Pushed To Stop Hamas Rockets

French President Nicolas Sarkozy Beseeches Damascus To Use Its Influence To Stop Hamas Attacks On Israel

(CBS)  This story was written by CBS News' George Baghdadi in Damascus.

---

French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Syria on Tuesday and immediately set to work trying to convince President Bashar al-Assad to push harder for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

Last year Sarkozy became the first Western leader to meet with al-Assad in years, bringing the country out of complete international isolation, and he hoped that special relationship would afford him more clout than his Western counterparts in dealing with Damascus.

Israel has so far ignored mounting international calls for a truce and continued bombarding the Gaza Strip. Officials say the fighting has now claimed the lives of some 575 Palestinians.

CBS News correspondent Richard Roth, reporting Tuesday from the Israeli side of the Gaza border, said Israel's military was pushing deeper into the tiny Palestinian territory. The International Committee of the Red Cross, meanwhile, said with the heightened fighting overnight the situation had become a "full-blown humanitarian crisis," added Roth.

"President Assad should help in convincing Hamas to stop firing the rockets. Syria should help us to convince Hamas to choose the voice of reason and the path of peace and the path of reconciliation," Sarkozy told reporters after his meeting with al-Assad. The French president visited leaders in Israel on Monday.

"I told the Israelis clearly that there is no military solution for Gaza and violence should stop now. I told them humanitarian aid should arrive to Gaza, and I also told them that firing rockets is unacceptable and should stop," he added, referring to the attacks by Hamas militants which have plagued southern Israel for years.

"I think this is the outline for an exit to the crisis," said Sarkozy, who also warned his Syrian counterpart that "time is not on our side."

Standing alongside him, the Syrian leader described what is happening in Gaza as a "war crime" and a "barbaric aggression" that Israel will pay for later.

Syria is by far the regional player in the Middle East with the most influence over Hamas.

Sarkozy likely pushed al-Assad to try and convince Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal to stop the rocket fire against Israel.

Mashaal, in turn, will likely demand the reopening of border crossings into Gaza and an end to the economic blockade on the tiny Palestinian territory which has left many of its 1.5 million residents without sufficient food, water and power.

Attempts by the United Nations Security Council to come up with a statement calling for a cease-fire in the 11-day conflict have thus far failed. (Click here to read a World Watch entry by foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk on the latest effort at the U.N.)

But Sarkozy, whose country relinquished the rotating presidency of the European Union with the beginning of the New Year, is showing no signs of surrendering diplomatic center stage.

He has condemned Israel's use of ground troops while blaming Hamas, the Islamic militant group which has run Gaza for more than a year, for causing Palestinian suffering with the rocket fire that led to the Israeli offensive.

France has no official contacts with Hamas, which the U.S. and European Union both classify as a terrorist organization.

Several European leaders have traveled to the region in an effort to stop the violence. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana joined the meeting Tuesday in Damascus, as did a top advisor to the Turkish Prime Minster.

Daoud Oghlo, the Turkish envoy, was expected to meet Mashaal later Tuesday, according to diplomatic sources. Turkey is one of the few nations to maintain direct contacts with both Israel and Hamas.