CSTO countries unanimously call for peaceful settlement in Syria

The member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) called for a peaceful settlement in Syria and opposed possible aggression against that country. “The CSTO member states are unanimous in that the Syrian situation can be settled only by peaceful political methods and that any external use of force would be a gross violation of international law or, using the terms of the U.N. Charter, simply aggression,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said after a CSTO summit in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on Monday, September 23. In his opinion, the use of force against Syria would inevitably lead to further destabilization in the country and would have a negative impact on the situation in the CSTO area. “We are grateful to our CSTO partners for their support of Russia’s efforts to settle the crisis peacefully and for their support of the Russian-American proposal with regard to the Syrian chemical weapons,” Putin said. He noted the need to use all possibilities to stop the violence in Syria and to start a dialogue between the Syrian authorities and the opposition. “This is a consolidated position and it is reflected in the statement adopted by the CSTO countries,” he said.