BEIJING, February 9 (Itar-Tass) — China and Russia should exert efforts to overcome the Syrian crisis and prevent the country from disintegration, the Huanqiu Shibao (Global Times) newspaper writes on Thursday.
The publication notes that “the vetoes by China and Russia have deprived the West of a convenient excuse to launch direct military action, meaning the Syrian opposition will not receive overall support asit was given to the NTC in Benghazi during the Libyan civil war.”
Huanqiu Shibao stresses that China “should persuade the Arab League, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt to mitigate their attitude toward the Assad government; China should also strengthen consultations with the Western countries on the Syrian issue, because their possible military intervention will lead to the “collapse of Syria that will result in the West further controlling the Middle East.”
Nevertheless, the newspaper said, China and Russia should coordinate their actions in the Syrian crisis settlement issues and act quickly. The situation in Syria can come to a standstill, and as soon as the efforts of the sides, trying to ease tensions in the country come to naught, the military intervention is inevitable, Huanqiu Shibao quotes an opinion of Zhang Xiaodong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Should all mediation efforts run out, Western countries would opt for a military intervention,” said Zhang.