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Conflict in Syria

Situation in Aleppo seen in UN as ‘planetary-scale’ crisis - Russian envoy

However, he stressed, Russia still hopes the Syrian crisis will be settled by political and diplomatic instruments

© EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, October 16. /TASS/. The Syrian crisis, and the situation in eastern Aleppo in particular, is seen in the United Nations as a "planetary-scale" problem, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said in an interview with the Voskresnoye Vremya weekly news roundup on Russian television Channel One on Sunday.

"Regrettably, the Syrian problem will be among the most pressing ones in the immediate future. Thus, what is going on around eastern Aleppo has acquired a character of the planetary-scale crisis here, in the United Nations," he said.

However, he stressed, Russia still hopes the Syrian crisis will be settled by political and diplomatic instruments used by the Russian side and the bloodshed in that country will be ultimately stopped.

"Of course, we would like the efforts taken by Russian diplomacy to yield a result so that it would be possible to make progress in the political settlement of the crisis and stop violence in Syria," the Russian diplomat said.

On Saturday, foreign ministers from Russia, the United States, seven Middle East countries, namely Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, and United Nations Secretary Generals’ Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura met in Switzerland’s Lausanne to discuss the Syrian problem. However they failed to reach any concrete agreements. Consultations on Syria are continued at talks in London on Sunday.

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Syria Vitaly Churkin Syrian conflict

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