Syria: EU united in using Brussels Conference to push for political solution

"We have always been not only pushing for but also accompanying the Geneva talks with very concrete measures," said the High Representative Federica Mogherini at the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday where Syria was high on the agenda of the 28 EU Foreign Ministers.

"We have been working to unite the opposition, to prepare their delegation for negotiations and talks. We have always also been working with civil society organisations, women," she added stressing that the opposition is today not only ready, but also willing to negotiate.

"If there is one hope for Syria, it is the people of Syria that are fed up of conflict and war that could give the push for serious negotiations."  

The High Representative highlighted how neither military escalations nor the Astana process and the de-escalation zones brought an end to the war.

"There can be no military solution to the Syrian conflict. Contrary to this, since last year, the Syrian regime, supported by its allies Russia and Iran, has intensified its military operations without regard for civilian casualties," the EU 28 Foreign Ministers echoed in the Council Conclusions adopted on Syria. 

Mogherini said she believes "it is evident to all that the only way to put an end to the suffering and the dying of so many Syrians, and by the way the only way to avoid that the Syrian crisis further spirals into a wider regional or global confrontation, is to put all the pressure on the parties, and mainly on the Syrian regime, to come to Geneva with meaningful intentions for negotiations."

The High Representative – who met on Sunday with UN Special Envoy for Syria De Mistura - reminded everyone how the EU has been consistently backing the United Nations' efforts to have a peace process, trying to facilitate meaningful negotiations.

It was the Syrian regime, she said,  that was reluctant in entering into meaningful negotiations in Geneva.  

"We clearly call upon in particular Russia and Iran to exercise their influence on Damascus to start serious and meaningful discussions under UN auspices in Geneva," Mogherini said.

"As you know, we have always made it very clear: we are ready to start planning financing for the reconstruction of Syria. It needs an enormous amount of resources, but this will come only - only - when a political process is firmly under way under UN auspices in Geneva," the High Representative said.  

"The economic leverage is definitely there, but most of all is the humanitarian one, because people are suffering, people are dying, and I think all the international community has to take responsibility for stopping this.