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UN Security Council discusses Aleppo situation ahead of Munich talks

Xinhua, February 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

Conversations and negotiations are what is most needed to solve the Syrian crisis, Gerard van Bohemen, the permanent representative of New Zealand to the UN, told reporters here Wednesday.

"Frankly, in this situation, it's not force that's the solution, it's conversations and negotiations and that's what we want most of all," van Bohemen said after the consultations by the UN Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria. Currently, New Zealand is one of the 10 non-permanent council members.

The consultations came as fighting intensified in Aleppo in the Northwestern part of Syria near the Turkish border.

Two crossings into Turkey from Syria had been compromised as a result of airstrikes although one of those crossings had since reopened, said Van Bohemen, who claimed Russian airstrikes were a direct cause of the crisis around Aleppo.

However, the Russian permanent representative to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, later told journalists here that some Security Council members were paying disproportionate attention to the humanitarian situation in Syria.

Churkin said that Russia's actions in Syria were legal.

"We are present there legally, at the invitation of the Syrian government and in contrast to what a so-called US led coalition is doing in Syria where they are acting outside of the international law," said Churkin.

Eyes will now be on the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) in Munich, Germany, which will meet Thursday. Churkin has previously said that Russia will bring "some new ideas to the table" in Munich. Endit