The S&D Group in the European Parliament strongly supports renewed multilateral efforts to bring an end to the brutal civil war in Syria. In this sense, it welcomes the meeting between the presidents Barak Obama of USA and Vladimir Putin of Russia during the UN General Assembly on 28 September.
S&D MEP and vice-president for foreign affairs Victor Boştinaru said:
While significant disagreements remain between the sides on the details of a political solution in Syria, chiefly the fate of the Syrian president Bashar Assad, both US and Russia seem to agree that the main priority should be to stop the civil war. The focus should be on the fight against the terrorist Daesh/IS, Jabhat Al-Nusra and other violent extremist organisations.
To move towards such a solution, the S&D Group stresses that it is crucial to seize this momentum for diplomacy and calls for a new international peace conference on Syria. Such a conference should involve, without any preconditions, all relevant domestic Syrian actors, excluding terrorist organisations, as well as international and regional actors, such as EU, USA, Russia, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
In this context, the S&D Group strongly supports diplomatic efforts of the HR/VP Federica Mogherini to find a political solution to the civil war in Syria, in coordination and cooperation with other international actors. This should be a first step towards creating a new, inclusive regional security framework in the Middle East, where the legitimate security concerns of all states are taken into account. Embedding the regional states in such a framework will defeat the forces of sectarianism and extremism that have threatened the security and well-being of the peoples of the region and denied them progress and development for far too long.
Richard Howitt MEP, S&D coordinator on foreign affairs and rapporteur on the upcoming report on 'EU strategy towards Iran post a nuclear agreement' added:
"The recent nuclear agreement between the world powers and Iran shows that international crises can be resolved if all sides demonstrate political will and overcome the zero sum game logic in their relations. This effective use of multilateralism can and should now be urgently applied to the situation in Syria and other crises in the Middle East, including in Yemen, Lebanon and the stalled peace process between Israel and Palestine."
S&D MEP and vice-president responsible for foreign affairs, Knut Fleckenstein, said:
Restarting dialogue between the US and Russia, despite the remaining mistrust over Ukraine, serves to de-escalate tensions and focus on areas where the interests of both sides and other international actors coincide. Ending an immense human suffering in Syria and paving the way for political solution is clearly one such area. Such a solution could only be possible and sustainable if it reflects the diversity of the Syrian society and respects the rights of all ethnic and religious groups.
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