France Against Syria Strike And Distrusting Of Hollande, Poll Says

Poll: Most French Against Syria Strike
Protestors hold placards reading "Don't touch Syria. Justice in Palestine" as they demonstrate against French and foreign military involvement in Syria, in Paris, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013. France said openly Thursday for the first time that its military is preparing for a possible operation in Syria ? but President Francois Hollande stopped short of announcing armed intervention over a suspected chemical weapons attack. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Protestors hold placards reading "Don't touch Syria. Justice in Palestine" as they demonstrate against French and foreign military involvement in Syria, in Paris, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013. France said openly Thursday for the first time that its military is preparing for a possible operation in Syria ? but President Francois Hollande stopped short of announcing armed intervention over a suspected chemical weapons attack. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

PARIS, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Most French people do not want France to take part in military action on Syria and most do not trust French President Francois Hollande to do so, a poll showed on Saturday.

The United States said on Friday it would punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government for a chemical attack that it says killed more than 1,400 people in Damascus last week, and Hollande said Britain's parliamentary vote against military strikes would not affect France's own actions.

The BVA poll released by Le Parisien-Aujourd'hui en France, showed 64 percent of respondents opposed military action, 58 percent did not trust Hollande to conduct it, and 35 percent feared it could "set the entire region (Middle East) ablaze".

Two other opinion polls published this week, and carried out after the gas attack, indicated lukewarm support among French voters for military intervention in Syria.

Hollande, whose popularity has been hurt by economic gloom, showed unexpected military mettle when he dispatched troops to help Mali's government fend off Islamist rebels earlier this year, an intervention backed by two-thirds of the public. (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Syria War In August (Warning: Graphic Images)

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