LOC19:54
16:54 GMT
BRUSSELS, Feb 15 (KUNA) -- US Defence Secretary James Mattis stressed Thursday that there is no military solution to the conflict in Syria but that it can only be resolved though a political process.
"It's best to leave Syria to the Syrians and efforts by the UN to solve this in Geneva is the right way to go," he told a press conference after a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels this afternoon.
"It will not be solved by Asad or the Russians or by anybody else. It has got to be under the auspices of the UN process," underlined Mattis.
Mattis said the Turkish defence ministers briefed his NATO colleagues about the military offensive in northern Syria adding that "NATO and the US stand with Turkey and it has legitimate security concerns." (end)
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