The French parliament will hold an emergency debate on Wednesday over whether or not the country should take military action against Syria.

Arguments are likely to centre around the moral and legal grounds for military strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been accused of using chemical weapons to massacre thousands of Syrian civilians…

If the US Congress votes against strikes, France will instead “take up its responsibilities” by providing support to the Syrian opposition in other ways, the French president said, without specifying exactly what this would entail.