Solving the Syrian conflict with local partners

The ALDE group, in the European Parliament on Wednesday (18 November), hosted a conference on countering extremism and improving governance in the Middle East and North Africa Region (Mena).

Following the meeting with the vice-president of the National Syrian Coalition, Hisham Ibrahim Marwah, ALDE leader Guy Verhofstadt i said:

"The future of Syria is a future without Assad and we support the Syrian National Council on this point.”

"There are still many obstacles to overcome and the international community must help to achieve this. It must engage all actors including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran to implement the ceasefire. It is also very important for Russia to keep its military strikes targeted on Daesh, without bombing the moderate forces, and to work together with other partners to defeat our common enemy," he said.

ALDE MEP, Javier Nart i, (Ciudadanos, Spain), criticised the EU’s lack of strategy on Syria:

"Europe has lacked any strategy in its fight against the terrorist group Isis. The murder of hundreds of people in Paris was necessary for us to awaken from our suicidal stagnation."

Among speakers invited to the conference were also Ali Zeidan, former prime minister of Libya, and Goukouni Oueddei, former president of Chad.