Only Dialogue can End the Violence in Syria
The only way to stop killing and violence in Syria still is deliberating a truce. This demands a course correction by the Assad government and the rebels. Without a contractually agreed truce the conflict is in danger of further escalating, declares Wolfgang Gehrcke, member of the Executive Committee of DIE LINKE. Gehrcke continues:
There are indeed only a few verifiable facts on the actual situation in Syria. The information on the Syrian state deploying nerve gas from depots spread by the U.S. fatally remind us of the rumours about weapons of mass destruction, leading eventually to the Iraq war. There must not be a repetition. The least the UN has to initiate is the establishment of a mutually accepted, neutral inspection agency.
The World Security Council will not make a chapter VII-decision. This I appreciate. A decision based on chapter VII of the United Nations Charter does not necessarily provide for military action. Yet it opens the doors to military intervention. Who considers military, will in the end dare operation – this is the experience of the past years.
Of the Federal Government I expect a renewed refusal of military intervention in Syria. On all sides arms delivery to Syria has to be abandoned. This concerns Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, as well as Russia. All parties, including the Syrian Human Rights movement, are called upon to demonstrate their ability to mediate in this terrible conflict. The Syrian people can only be helped by way of dialogue, not by violence.