Kuwait urges peaceful solution to Syria crisis

Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al Sabah called for a peaceful solution to the two and half years of crisis in Syria, and urged self-restraint to prevent another war in the Middle East. Sabah made the remarks on Friday during a meeting with US President Barack Obama at the Oval Office in the White House, Al-Alam reported. Obama said both leaders agreed the use of chemical weapons in Syria on Aug 21 was a "criminal act" and that it’s "absolutely important for the international community to respond in deterring the use of chemical weapons and getting those weapons out of Syria". On his part, Obama said he is optimistic that the talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva will produce concrete results. The Obama administration had to halt its plans to bomb Syria over increasing number of Americans opposing the attack and international calls for calling off its military ambitions due to catastrophic consequences that could be expected of such move. The war rhetoric against Syria intensified after foreign-backed opposition forces accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of launching a chemical attack on militant strongholds in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21. Damascus has strongly ruled out the accusations, saying the attack was carried out by the militants themselves as a false-flag operation. "We agreed that ultimately what’s needed for the underlying conflict is a political settlement that allows ordinary Syrians to get back to their homes, to rebuild and to relieve the enormous suffering that’s taking place," Obama noted.