Deutsche Welle, Press Release
Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry for Syria, has demanded a stop to the delivery of weapons to Syria. Most of the arms delivered will be used to commit war crimes, Pinheiro told DW.
Pinheiro said in an interview with Deutsche Welle (DW): “First, there is no military solution for the crisis. It is an illusion to think that the government or the rebel groups will be victorious. It is very important also to stop providing arms to all the parties. The best recipe for continuing this war is to carry on providing resources and delivering weapons to the different parties. We have said this very clearly. This is unacceptable, because most of these arms will be used to commit war crimes, to kill more Syrians, to create more refugees, more internally displaced people, and the only way to stop this is negotiation.”
Pinheiro pointed out that it is very important that the countries that are influential in the region and internationally build some mutual trust, following the example of the Russian Federation and the United States. “They seemed so far from each other but have now reached an agreement. This agreement demonstrated that it is possible to move towards a political solution,” said Pinheiro.
Pinheiro also announced that the UN Commission of Inquiry for Syria would comment on who was responsible for the chemical weapons attacks in the country by the end of the year.
“I have barely finished reading the full UN report. I read information saying sarin was extensively used, but it would be irresponsible to make any indication about the perpetrators. The Commission of Inquiry for Syria has the mandate [to find this out]. And we are asking to come to Syria, because we will perform our mandate: in the next reports we will necessarily say something about who the perpetrators were. We’ll say something before the end of the year,” said Pinheiro.
Read the full interview in English, German and Portuguese.
