BRUSSELS, March 16 (KUNA) -- A top US State Department official has praised the contribution of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in resolving the crisis in Yemen.
"In Yemen, the GCC and the Arab League, the GCC in particular, really put together an extraordinary proposal that the rest of the international community helped to implement," Wendy Sherman, undersecretary for political affairs at the US Department of State, told the Brussels Forum Friday evening.
She added "No one would have imagined that Yemen would be where it is today. They have a very long way to go, but nobody would have imagined it.
"So it is very important why I wanted to sit with the GCC and to hear what they have to say because it is their neighborhood, said Sherman who recently visited Saudi capital Riyadh and Yemen." Speaking at session on Mali and Syria, she defended the US government's cautious approach to the conflict in Syria.
At the end of the day, the choice is for the Syrian people, she noted, explaining that the Obama administration is "trying to learn from the past." "One of the things we learned from Iraq was the Syrian governmental infrastructure can't be destroyed," stressed the US official.
Speaking at the same event, EU Commissioner for international cooperation and humanitarian aid, Kristalina Georgieva, criticized a lack of response by the international community in Syria.
"Very clearly we haven't done enough to reduce suffering," she said.
From a humanitarian point of view, we have to recognize, unless we find a political solution, it will be very dangerous. In the end, it is only a political solution that can bring this tremendous suffering to an end, she added.
Brussels Forum is an annual conference on the transatlantic relationship organized by the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) and attended by high ranking officials from the EU institutions and member states, U.S. officials, congressional representatives, parliamentarians, and academics. (end) nk.ba KUNA 161136 Mar 13NNNN