Pope calls for end to Syria slaughter

8 January 2013

www.abc.net.au/news

Reuters/AFP

Pope Benedict XVI has urged the international community to end to the “endless slaughter” in Syria before the entire country becomes a “a field of ruins.”

He made the appeal during a yearly “state of the world” address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican on Monday.

“I think first and foremost of Syria, torn apart by endless slaughter and the scene of dreadful suffering among its civilian population,” he said.

He called for an end to the conflict, which he said “will know no victors but only vanquished if it continues, leaving behind it nothing but a field of ruins”.

The Pope urged the diplomats from nearly 180 countries and world organisations to push their governments to do everything possible to face “this grave humanitarian situation”.

“Civil and political authorities before all others have a grave responsibility to work for peace,” he told the envoys gathered in the Sala Regia of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.

“They are the first called to resolve the numerous conflicts causing bloodshed in our human family, beginning with that privileged region in God’s plan, the Middle East.”

The Pope spoke a day after Syrian president Bashar al-Assad rejected peace talks with his enemies in a defiant speech that his opponents described as a renewed declaration of war.

Pope Benedict has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Syria.

He used his Christmas message to call for an end to the bloodshed in the country, saying its people have been “deeply wounded and divided by a conflict which does not spare even the defenceless and reaps innocent victims”.

The United Nations estimates 60,000 people have been killed in the 21-month uprising against Mr Assad’s regime.

Commenting on the story, Ribal Al-Assad, Director of the ODFS, said:

“I welcome and agree with Pope Benedict’s call for an end to the conflict in Syria. He is absolutely right that if the conflict continues there will no victors only the vanquished and the country will be a field of ruins. There is no military solution to the conflict.

“The UN, US, EU and Canada, must impress upon states in the Middle East who are arming the opposition and sending jihadist proxies to fight to stop as their actions have escalated the conflict in Syria and divided Syria and the region along its sectarian faultline.

“I also call on the UN, US, EU and Canada to act now and bring together all the Syrian opposition groups onto one platform so they become a genuinely inclusive opposition, which works towards a diplomatic solution based on the principles of the Kofi Annan Plan, which are to de-escalate the violence and have a ceasefire leading to a peaceful Syrian led transition through dialogue and negotiation.”