Counter-Terrorism Should Be Basis of Any Peace Plan for Syria: Top Advisor
DAMASCUS (Tasnim) – A senior advisor to the head of the Syrian Council of Ministers underlined that any plan for resolving the ongoing crisis in the Arab country should be based on fighting terrorism.
Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Abdul-Qader Azouz, who is also a politics professor at Aleppo University, pointed to a recent visit to Syria by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, saying that during the visit, the UN envoy held talks with top Syrian officials on ways to resolve the conflicts through political means.
"The Syrian authorities back all initiatives for the political resolution of the country's crisis," he said, adding, however, that it is not possible to speak of a political solution without restoration of security and stability to the country.
"It is necessary that any plan de Mistura puts forward give priority to the campaign against terrorism," the senior analyst stressed.
Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with Takfiri terrorists, including militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), currently controlling parts of it, mostly in the east.
More than 220,000 people have been killed in the four-year conflict that has driven 4 million refugees abroad.
The US and its regional allies have been supporting the militants operating inside Syria for more than four years.
The ISIL terrorist group claims as an independent state the territory of Iraq and Syria, with implied future claims intended over more of the Levant, including Lebanon, occupied Palestine, Jordan, Cyprus, and Southern Turkey.