Syrian crisis can only be solved through peaceful means: Kazakh Minister Idrissov

The Syrian crisis, which has been crippling the country for the last four years, can only be solved through peaceful ways, Tengrinews reports citing Kazakhstan’s Foreign Affairs Minister Yerlan Idrissov. 

When addressing the General Policy Debates at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday, September 30, Minister Idrissov said that the conflict in Syria had evolved into one of the most serious crisis in the world going beyond the Syrian borders. It had already claimed the lives of more than 190.000 people, according to the UN estimates and forced almost half of the country's population to flee.

Kazakhstan has continuously been supporting all the efforts made by the international community and the Syrian government and opposition groups to determine the political future of Syria through dialogue and reconciliation, and to stop violence and bloodshed, Kazakh Minister Idrissov said.

“We very much hope to continue the talks between the Syrian government and opposition on the settlement of this conflict within the frameworks of the Geneva process. Kazakhstan strongly believes that a peaceful solution is necessary to resolve the Syrian crisis,” Idrissov declared.

He also voiced Kazakhstan’s commitment to the collective measures in fighting international terrorism and ensuring peace in the Middle East and North Africa, which had been destabilizing global security for decades. "We call on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to show wisdom, responsibility and political will to reach a historic peace agreement that would meet the legitimate aspirations of their peoples," the Kazakh Minister said.

"Over 70 years of the United Nations, we have exhausted the limit of revolutions and world wars and now our wisdom should only serve for the sake of peace and security. The Arab Spring has proved that revolutions only hinder the development of human potential and cast our society back complicating bilateral relations," he said.

Minister Idrissov also emphasized the need for a UN-led coalition for countering terrorism. Furthermore, the UN Security Council should pass a relevant resolution, he said. “We need to set up a coalition under the auspices of the UN (to combat terrorism) and develop a single mechanism. The existing mechanism aimed at combating terrorism, including the UN global strategy, should become legally binding (to states) through the endorsement of the UN resolution," the Kazakh diplomat is quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.  

Minister Idrissov went on expressing readiness to make his own contribution to addressing the global challenges.

According to the press-office of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, as part of his visit to New York, Yerlan Idrissov took part in numerous multilateral meetings.

On September 26, Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Idrissov participated in a high-level meeting on rehabilitation of Afghanistan and a regional cooperation organized by Afghanistan, the United States and China along with foreign ministers of more than 20 countries and the European Union.

When addressing the participants of the meeting, Minister Idrissov deliberated on Kazakhstan's contribution to peaceful rehabilitation of Afghanistan both on regional and international levels. He emphasized that rebuilding Afghanistan was of utmost importance for the security and stability in the Central Asian region, therefore, the international community had to undertake coordinated steps to achieve the objective.

On the same day, Minister Idrissov also met with colleagues from the member countries of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States, an international intergovernmental organization made up of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey, which promotes comprehensive cooperation among Turkic Speaking States. The counterparts discussed ways ща strengthening the cooperation within the organization and implement the agreement reached at the CCTS summit held in Astana in September.

The Kazakh ministerial delegation led by Yerlan Idrissov also addressed the participants of a high-level round table on strengthening of South-South cooperation organized by the People's Republic of China and co-chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which brought together leaders of developing countries. 

According to Yerlan Idrissov, the round table was "a timely meeting" given the continuous changes in the global geopolitical and economic landscapes. In such conditions, developing countries have no other choice, but to cooperate, as it is "the key effective way to protect our common security and address pressing development challenges".

He affirmed Kazakhstan's commitment to promoting South-South cooperation and "sharing best practices and technologies, funding pilot projects in far-flung areas, providing capital to scale-up successful projects, and supplying regional public goods".

Minister Idrissov also partook in the meeting of foreign ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during which the sides dwelt on the cooperation and coordination of foreign policies of CSTO member states.

The following day, foreign ministers of five Central Asian countries, including Kazakhstan, attended a ministerial meeting chaired by US Secretary of State John Kerry in a new format initiated by the United States. The meeting proceeded with a thorough discussion of how the United States and Central Asian countries could work together to address common challenges.

By Assel Satubaldina