Merkel: Military efforts will not solve Syrian crisis

Military efforts will not resolve the Syrian crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned yesterday.

“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 told Deutschlandfunk radio.

Merkel pointed out that several attempts had already been made to find a solution to the Syrian crisis in Geneva with the presence of representatives of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

Merkel said it was necessary to involve the Al-Assad regime of President in the process.

“It doesn’t mean that we don’t see the terrible effects of what Assad has done and is doing to this day with barrel bombs against the population there,” she said. “But 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 explained that she spoke with Assad under the mediation of UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura as well as during former UN chief Kofi Annan’s mediation term.

Merkel stressed that the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran can play an important role in this regard as well as Germany, France and Britain.

Remarking on the refugee crisis, the German Chancellor stressed on the need to protect EU borders and address the causes that force refugees to leave their countries in the first place.