Latin America

Brazil, Argentina urge peace in Syria

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Brazil and Argentina have called on the international community to seek a diplomatic settlement of the foreign-sponsored crisis plaguing Syria.

In a joint statement following a Thursday meeting, Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Alberto Figueiredo and his Argentinean counterpart Hector Timerman threw their weight behind a strictly peaceful solution to the turmoil in Syria, Xinhua reported.

The two sides also “condemned the use of chemical weapons by any party and under any circumstance,” referring to the fatal chemical attack on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21.

The United States and its allies accuse the Syrian government of being behind the incident, while Syria and Russia maintain that Takfiri groups operating in the country staged the attack to incriminate the governemnt of President Bashar al-Assad.

Meanwhile, Haiti also hailed the recent agreement between Russia and the United States over Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.

“Haiti celebrates the accord reached between the United States and Russia, which has prevented the use of force, giving priority to diplomatic means to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis,” said Haitian Foreign Ministry in a statement.

Port-au-Prince also praised President Assad for pledging to support the deal.

The United States and Russia have reached an agreement on a framework that will see the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014.

The deal was reached after Russia offered Syria to place its chemical weapons arsenal under international supervision and the Syrian government accepted the proposal.

On September 18, Assad said Damascus will destroy its chemical weapons arsenal, but the process will take a year and cost Syria a billion dollars.

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