Qatar urges shared role in political solution in Syria

By Cansu Dikme

ANKARA

Qatar’s Foreign Minister on Wednesday called on the international community to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria.

“Syria is the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe,” Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Twitter.

“It's our collective responsibility as an international community to urgently act to increase humanitarian access and find a political solution,” he said.

A two-day international conference on Syria organized by the United Nations and the European Union ended Wednesday in the Belgian capital of Brussels.

The conference pledged $4.4 billion for Syrian refugees, said Christos Stylianides, the European commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management.

Stylianides said the meeting’s number one priority was a political solution in support of UN-led talks in Geneva and the transition to a peaceful, democratic and stable Syria

Representatives from 85 countries and non-governmental organizations attended the second Brussels Conference on "Supporting the Future of Syria and the region."

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.