Pakistan favours political solution of Syrian crisis

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who expressed Pakistan's readiness Friday to "re-engage with India in a substantive and purposeful dialogue", urged Syrian parties to take the negotiation route to solve their crisis.

He advised the Syrian parties that "more war will lead to more killings that need to be stopped".

Addressing the UN general assembly, which entered its fourth day here Friday, Sharif said the Syrian parties should move to negotiation to put an early end to the crisis, which has reportedly killed 100,000 people since its outbreak in March 2011, Xinhua reported.

"Syria is in turmoil, with Syrians killing Syrians," he said. "We appeal to the Syrian government and opposition groups to move to the negotiating table in Geneva to prepare a road map for national reconciliation and the necessary political transitions."

"More war will lead to more killings that need to be stopped," he said.

On the usage of chemical wepons, Sharif said: "As party to the Chemical Weapons Convention, Pakistan remains opposed to the use of chemical weapons." He also said that his country strongly condemned the use of these weapons.

The UN fact-finding group, after analysing samples collected on the site of alleged chemical weapons attacks, has confirmed that chemical weapons were used Aug 21 on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Sharif welcomed the recent agreement reached between the US and Russia over Syria's chemical weapons.

"We welcome the agreement reached between the United States and Russia, and supported by other permanent members of the Security Council, to secure and destroy chemical weapons in Syria," he said.

"This crucial step has facilitated consensus within the council to adopt a resolution, which will not only address the issue of chemical weapons but start the stalled political process in Syria that would lead to national reconciliation and solutions that are acceptable to the people of Syria."

"Pakistan will support that resolution," he said.

The 15-member Security Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution on the Syrian chemical weapons late Friday.

The UN is leading the international efforts to bring into reality the Geneva II conference on Syria at an early date.