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EU Foreign Ministers Discuss Syria

March 11, 2013

by VOA News

European Union foreign ministers are in Brussels for talks aimed at finding ways to end two-years of bloodshed in Syria that has killed an estimated 70,000 people.

On her way into the meeting Monday, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she supports a political solution to the crisis.

"We need to stop this killing, we need to stop the violence that's happening in Syria and to find a way in which the opposition can really move forward on a political solution," she said.

Ashton reiterated calls for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, saying that the "devastating impact of his policies is obvious for all to see."

U.N.-backed peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is also attending the talks.

The ministers are expected to discuss how they can support Syria's opposition, including Britain's push to loosen an arms embargo so that rebels can get access to needed weaponry.

They also are expected to discuss how they can better engage Russia to work with fellow U.N. Security Council members on Syria. Russia has blocked the last three Security Council draft resolutions aimed at pushing Mr. Assad out of power.

In Moscow on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that any solution to the Syrian crisis must come from within Syria.

"The most important thing is to ensure that all questions are resolved by the Syrians themselves without insisting on any suggestions from outside, so that Syrians themselves would define both the fate of their country and the fate of specific politicians," he said.

He spoke after meeting with Syrian opposition figures who are not part of the main opposition Syrian National Coalition.

Also on Monday, investigators released the latest report on Syria to the U.N. Human Rights Council, saying the situation is "deteriorating rapidly," and that both government troops and rebels have committed war crimes.

The report said abuses by rebels were not on the same scale as those by government troops, but that both sides were found to have used child fighters.