During the joint EU-Arab League meeting, the European Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini stressed that the military operations in Syria must be reinforced by political involvement of the international community to find a viable solution to the conflict, which is about to enter its sixth year. “We know that Syria cannot be turned into a black hole, we will all suffer from that. And we Arabs, Europeans cannot allow that to happen. Someone far away can, maybe, at a certain moment think this conflict can end simply on a military basis. We know very well that there are people beyond the numbers and we share the responsibility to stop this war especially for that. So, when a political transition will begin, we will also need to work on a massive effort for the reconstruction of the country and, I underline, when a political transition will begin. And it will be, it can be the most powerful dividend of peace, the most powerful leverage we can collectively use to end the war and start a political transition with a political interest in Syrian talks under the UN auspices,” said Mogherini.
In her speech, Mogherini also took the opportunity to denounce the wave of recent attacks by Islamists around the world. “We face a wave of inconceivable violence and terrorism that makes our gathering together, our meeting today, even more important, even more relevant because I believe we share the common and deep conviction of the fact that only a common response to the terrorist violence can bring results for the sake of civilians across our region,” stressed Mogherini.