Updated

France's new Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says that Syria is in a state of civil war.

Fabius told reporters at a Paris news conference Wednesday that "if you can't call it a civil war, then there are no words to describe it."

He added that to stop "this civil war from worsening," Syria's President Bashar Assad must leave power and Syrian opposition groups must start a new government.

Fabius says he will be in personal contact with the opposition inside Syria.