Political solution only way to resolve Syrian issue

China on Thursday stressed again that "the only realistic way" for addressing the Syrian issue is to seek a political solution.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei stated such a stance in the wake of the approval of a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly, when responding to a journalist's question.

According to Hong, China has paid high attention to the development of the situation in Syria and played a constructive role in resolving the issue politically.

"China believed that the future destiny of Syria should be decided by the Syrian people themselves," he said.

The pressing problem is to urge all relevant sides to cease fire and stope violence at an early date and start the political transition based on the communique of the Geneva foreign ministers' meeting of the Action Group of the Syrian issue, he said.

Any action taken by the international community, including the UN General Assembly, should be conducive to realizing the above goals while observing the principles of the UN Charter and basic norms governing the international relations, he said.

According to Hong, relevant countries recently tabled a draft resolution to the 67th UN General Assembly. "As with a number of UN member states, China showed serious concern over part of the contents of the draft resolution and thus demanded sponsor countries take into full consideration opinions of all relevant sides and not forcibly push forward the vote in order not to hamper a political solution," he said.

As the sponsor countries had forcibly pushed forward the vote without fully communicating with all sides, China voted to oppose the draft resolution, he said.

He stressed that China sought no self-interest on the Syrian issue and had no intention to take sides.

"Should any solution by widely accepted by relevant sides in Syria, China would take a positive and open attitude toward it," he said.

He said that China understood the concerns of the Arab countries and the League of Arab States in promptly resolving the Syria issue, and valued the endeavors made by the Arab countries and the League of Arab States in addressing the issue politically.

"We are willing to make joint efforts with the international community, including the Arab countries, to persist in the direction of political solution so as to solve the Syria issue with a fair, peaceful and proper manner," he said.

The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution Wednesday, calling for a political transition in Syria. The resolution is not legally binding.