German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere
German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere has reaffirmed his opposition to military intervention in Syria, saying diplomacy favors over military action.
“The failure of diplomacy must not automatically bring about the onset of the military,” the minister told told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, AFP reported on Sunday.
He said Kofi Annan’s decision to quit as international peace envoy to Syria did not change Germany’s stance on the sending of troops into the nearly 17-month conflict.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. Damascus says ‘outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists’ are behind the unrest while the West and the opposition accuse the security forces of killing protesters.
The Syrian troops have killed a large number of terrorists in clashes between government troops and insurgents across the country over the past few days.
The Syrian Army carried out an operation in the western province of Hama on Saturday, killing dozens of insurgents in the town of al-Rastan, about 184 kilometers (114 miles) north of Damascus.
Many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the turmoil in Syria that began in March 2011.
On August 3, the UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution on Syria, proposed by Saudi Arabia, which criticized the Security Council and the Syrian government. Russia and China condemned the resolution and said it undermined peace efforts.