EU, Russia Must Reach Consensus to Settle Syrian Conflict – Slovak FM

Brussels and Moscow need to reach an understanding on the ongoing civil war in Syria to settle the conflict, Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Thursday, the International Syrian Support Group met in Munich on the sidelines of the security conference. The session resulted in the adoption of a final communique that set a one-week deadline for measures to be implemented to end the hostilities in the conflict-torn country.

"The [Munich] presentation clearly demonstrated that understanding is completely different, even opposite. We need Russia, Russia is part of the Geneva process, but as long as Russia sees the problem quite differently from us, I am not too optimistic about possible solutions to the problems," Lajcak said, commenting on Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s remarks on the international efforts to settle the Syrian war.

On Sunday, Medvedev said he was "cautiously optimistic" about international cooperation on the issue of Syrian reconciliation, despite NATO’s stance on Russia indicating a slide toward Cold War era relations.

Syria has been mired in a civil war since 2011. Hostilities in the country have killed an estimated 250,000 people and displaced millions.

The West has long called for Assad’s resignation, while Russia supports the Syrian leader as the only legitimate power in the country. The Syrian president has repeatedly said he would step down should he lose electoral support.