Syria crisis needs political solution, Germany’s Merkel says
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for a political solution to more than four years of deadly conflict in Syria, describing military efforts necessary but not enough.
"Regarding Syria, I said for the first time: We will need military efforts, but military efforts will not bring the solution; we need a political process but that has not really got going very well yet," she made the comments in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio station due to be broadcast later on Sunday.
She said the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must be involved in talks aimed at ending the crisis in the Arab country.
"To get to a political solution, I need both the representatives of the Syrian opposition and those who are currently ruling in Damascus and others as well to get real successes and then above all the allies of the respective groups," Merkel stated.
She said Russia, the US, Saudi Arabia and Iran could play a significant role in the process, while pointing to the importance of the role Germany, France and Britain can also play in that regard.
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011 with reports saying more than 250,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
The United Nations says the militancy has displaced more than 7.6 million Syrians internally, and over four million others have fled the country to take refuge in neighboring states, including Jordan and Lebanon.
On September 30, Russia began its military campaign against terrorists operating in Syria upon a request from the Damascus government.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said one of the key objectives of Moscow’s anti-terror airstrikes in Syria is to preserve the Arab country’s territorial integrity.
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