Foreign Minister of Iceland Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson has stated that the Icelandic government will not support military intervention in Syria before further proof of who ordered the use of chemical weapons in Damascus has been found.
“First of all I must stress that we of course condemn the use of chemical weapons in Syria,” the minister told ruv.is on Tuesday. “However, we don’t have any proof of who used the chemical weapons rather than anyone else.”
Until proven that the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is responsible, it is not timely to answer whether the Icelandic government will support military intervention from the international community, Gunnar reasoned.
CNN reported today that U.S. President Barack Obama has concluded that Syria carried out the chemical weapons attack against civilians in Damascus.
“And if that’s so, then there need to be international consequences,” the president added in an interview on NewsHour, quoted on cnn.com. Obama said that he has “not made a decision” about whether to conduct a military strike in Syria.
The Left-Green Movement in Iceland’s opposition approved a resolution yesterday condemning crimes against humanity, expressing their great concern over the situation in the Middle East and escalating violence in Egypt and Syria, Morgunblaðið reports.
Icelandic Foreign Minister Gunnar wrote a letter to his Egyptian counterpart Nabil Fahmy last week, expressing his concern over the situation in Egypt, stating that the public’s wish for democracy should be respected.
A press release from the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs states that Iceland condemns all acts of violence, urging Egyptian authorities not to attack protestors.
Gunnar stressed that the new regime must keep its promise on having a new government democratically elected as soon as possible and guaranteeing that all democratic political parties be involved in the process.
Further escalation of violence will only harm the interests of the country’s inhabitants and all of the Middle East, the minister concluded.
ESA
