Beijing calls for political solution to Syrian crisis (2)

'Political settlement'

Li Baodong, China's permanent representative to the UN, reiterated that "a political settlement is the sole viable way of defusing the crisis in Syria" and military means cannot address the crisis, but would only lead to more conflict and bloodshed.

"Forcibly pushing forward the vote is not conducive to unity of the member states and the mediation efforts made by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the international community to solve the crisis in Syria," Li said.

Dong Manyuan, a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, said the essence of the resolution reflects the intervention of the US and some Western countries, which will only worsen the humanitarian crisis and situation in Syria and increase the danger of the crisis spilling over into neighboring states.

"The only correct way is that the international community pushes for a political solution that is led by the Syrian people and is accepted by all relevant parties. And its precondition is to respect Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Dong said.

The resolution also contradicts the consensus reached between the US and Russia last week, which agreed on a political solution with respect to the Geneva communique to the Syrian crisis, ruling out military intervention and a forced regime change, Dong said.

Noting that fewer countries in the UN voted "yes" for the resolution this time compared with the previous two UN resolutions on Syria, Dong said it shows that more countries are objecting to the intervention by the US and Western countries in pushing for regime changes.