Corbyn calls for peace in Syria

The leader of Britain’s Labour Party says there is a strong need for a political solution in Syria as military action raises the specter of a new Cold War.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is right to warn of the dangers of the new Cold War, said Jeremy Corbyn said during an event Friday organized by the Muslim Council of Britain.
Corbyn said he was “very interested” when Guterres said last week that he was “very concerned we are moving into a new Cold War era”.
“He [Guterres] said that with good reason because it had been a deadlock the night before in the UN Security Council between Russia and Britain, the U.S. and France over Syria and the chemical weapons,” Corbyn said.
He said the issue should have been taken to the general assembly, but it wasn’t.
On April 7, Douma district in Eastern Ghouta, a sprawling suburb of Damascus, was hit by a suspected chemical attack that left at least 78 civilians dead, according to the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets.
On April 10, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it would deploy a fact-finding team to investigate the attack.
The U.S., UK and France jointly launched retaliatory strikes on April 13 targeting the Assad regime’s chemical weapons capabilities.
Corbyn said the incident “really points to the need for a political solution in Syria”.
“It requires Russia, the U.S., Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Jordan to come together with the EU countries as well to promote a meaningful peace process,” he said.
“Four hundred thousand people died in the Syrian war already. Millions are either internal refugees or in exile and the horror goes on, the poverty goes on and the hunger goes on.
“There has to be a peace process, and it can only be achieved if the big powers come together.”
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, according to the UN.
“So Antonio Guterres is right to warn of the dangers of the new Cold War. It is up to us to listen to him. He is the secretary-general of the United Nations.”