(Hina) - The crisis in Syria can be resolved only politically, with the participation of all global factors and countries in the region, Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said in New York on Wednesday.
Pusic on Wednesday attended a session of the UN Security Council on the situation in the Middle East and northern Africa. The session, at which Pusic was one of the speakers, was called by Russia which yesterday started air strikes in Syria thus joining an international coalition led by the United States which has been carrying out such attacks against the Islamic State terrorist organisation for a year.
Croatia's position is that the crisis can be resolved only politically, Pusic said in a comment on the session at which all UN countries could speak.
"The first phase is to put an end to fighting and the second is to establish peace, and maybe not the same partners should necessarily be involved in both the first and the second phase," she said.
Russia and the West disagree on the role of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad whom Russia considers a legitimate leader crucial in the fight against terrorism while the West insists that there can be no solution to the crisis as long as he is in power.
Russia announced on Monday that it goal was the fight against terrorism, however, contradictory information arrived from Syria on Wednesday about the targets of Russian attacks, with some sources claiming that Russian jets targeted rebels fighting against Assad instead of IS.
Pusic recalled that Croatia was already feeling the consequences of the crisis, having been flooded by a tide of migrants from Syria and other Middle East countries arriving in Croatia on their way to the West.