Rouhani: SCO urging political solution to Syrian crisis

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the member-states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have called for a political solution to the Syrian crisis. “The SCO members condemned any military intervention in Syria and described diplomacy as the only solution to the Syrian crisis in the form of holding political negotiations between the government and the opposition,” President Rouhani told reporters at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport on Friday night upon his return from a two-day visit to Kyrgyzstan. The SCO is an intergovernmental security organization that was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The US has been pushing for a military strike on Syria over its government's alleged use of chemical weapons against the opposition. The Syrian government has denied any use of such weapons, and Russia firmly opposes any foreign military intervention without UN authorization. On Monday, Russia suggested that the Syrian government join the organization for prohibition of chemical weapons (OPCW) and put its chemical weapons under international control. The proposal soon received support from the Syrian government, which is trying to avoid a possible US attack. US President Barack Obama also called it a "potentially positive development." US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that the US would wait for a verifiable proposal from Russia but would not wait for long. The conflict in Syria started in March 2011, when sporadic pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of western and regional states. The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle-East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history. As the foreign-backed insurgency in Syria continues without an end in sight, the US government has boosted its political and military support to Takfiri extremists. Washington has remained indifferent to warnings by Russia and other world powers about the consequences of arming militant groups.