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World increasingly aware of need for peaceful Syria settlement - diplomat

ATHENS, December 13, 4:35 /ITAR-TASS/. The world is getting increasingly aware of the importance to settle the Syrian problem politically, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov told Russian reporters here on Thursday.

The diplomat said his talks with the leadership of the Greek Foreign Ministry had focused on international issues, including the situation in Syria, amid a growing awareness of a need to settle the situation there politically. “There is no military solution to that issue,” the top Russian diplomat added.

“Of course everybody is looking forward to the upcoming Geneva-2 conference, due in mid-January,” Meshkov said. He said Greece had stated its resolute support for the Geneva process. “Of course we are all concerned about the humanitarian situation in Syria and around Syria,” Meshkov said. “But there are certain UN decisions, and different international organizations are working in the region, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Food Program,” he added. “Of course we are categorically against seeing anybody use the humanitarian issue for their political, and maybe even military purposes. And this was the consideration that I was conveying to our Greek partners at talks,” he said. “Greece supports the Geneva-2 process. It is absolutely clear that Syria will be one of the issues in our dialogue with the European Union during Greece’s presidency (of the EU in the first half of 2014),” he said.

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