German foreign minister Heiko Maas
April 16, 2018
The Syrian crisis needs a negotiated solution involving all powers in the
region, German foreign minister Heiko Maas said on Monday, adding he could not imagine anyone who had used
chemical weapons against his own people to be part of that process.
Maas was asked whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could be part of a solution to the crisis in Syria.
“There will be a solution involving everyone who has influence on the region,” he told reporters on arrival to
a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
“Nobody can imagine someone who uses chemical weapons against his own people to be part of this solution.”
NAN reports that the U. S., Britain and France fired more than 100 missiles at Syria on Friday in a “one-time shot”
the Pentagon said followed evidence that Al-Assad was responsible for a chemical weapons attack
using at least chlorine gas.
While Turkey is cooperating with both Russia and Iran to wind down some of the violence in Syria, Ankara has
long demanded that President Al-Assad must go and has backed rebels against him. Assad’s main supporters
are Moscow and Tehran.
Turkey has also been at loggerheads with Washington over U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia,
which Ankara considers a terrorist organisation linked to Kurdish militants waging a decades-long insurgency
in Turkish soil.
Turkey supported the air strikes by U.S., British and French forces, saying the move sent a message to
Al-Assad.
