International

The Council of Europe today unreservedly condemned the use of poison gas in Syria and called on states which have not yet signed the international treaty against chemical weapons to do so. Poison gas stocks in Syria must be put under international supervision in order to prevent their further use by whatever party. Further violence cannot lead to a sustainable peace, stated the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which was passed on the initiative of SP Senator Tiny Kox, chair of the United Left group in the Assembly.

The Parliamentary Assembly of Europe’s biggest treaty-based organisation stated that the use of poison gas is never acceptable anywhere, by anyone, on the basis of any argument whatsoever. At the same time the Assembly called on all parties involved, whether inside or outside Syria, to convene an international peace conference as quickly as possible to put an end to the country’s civil war and to bloodshed.

‘The use of arms can never lead to sustainable peace and is therefore not an option; only a political solution can put an end to the spiral of violence, but also to the dramatic situation of refugees and displaced persons,’ specified the resolution, which was approved on the initiative of the SP’s Senate leader Tiny Kox, who also chairs the Left Group in the Assembly. The resolution further urged aid transports to be allowed to pass unhindered to more than a million refugees who have fled to other regions of Syria as well as to neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.