Russian Foreign Ministry shocked by US diplomats’ calls for military solution in Syria

MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. The calls for a military solution to the Syrian conflict by a group of US diplomats are shocking, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Wednesday.

"We could not help being surprised and shocked by the fact that employees of the US Department of State signed a letter that a military scenario of an attack on Syria, a military scenario of solving the Syrian problem should be implemented," she said. "We were shocked by this, because it was signed by diplomats, that is, the people who should deal with the peaceful political settlement."

Zakharova noted that, if diplomats are calling for war, they admit to their incompetence.

"We saw many crises in the Middle East and North Africa," she went on to say. "The use of force only makes things worse. All of us see Iraq, Libya and so on. Most importantly, the whole world has realized that, despite all the ideology, even the United States admits that the chosen policy was a mistake. So, why again lose five or ten years to admit one’s mistakes?"

Zakharova added that there are not only proponents of the use of force in Washington but also those who are in favor of a political dialogue. "We hope that the latter approach will prevail and are doing our best for that," she said.

A group of State Department employees earlier prepared a memo urging the Obama administration to use military force against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to resolve the conflict in this country. State Department spokesman John Kirby said that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had read the memo, adding that Mr. Kerry respected the process as a way for employees "to express policy views candidly and privately to senior leadership." Later Kerry met with some of the memo’s authors.