BEIJING – The U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria met with China's foreign minister Wednesday to solicit Beijing's support for international efforts to end Syria's civil war.
The international mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, told Yang Jiechi at the opening of their meeting that he hoped "China can play an active role in solving the events in Syria."
After the meeting, the official Xinhua News Agency said that Yang had explained China's new four-point proposal on a political resolution to the Syrian conflict. The proposal urges relevant parties in Syria to stop fighting and begin a political transition, and says the international community should work with "greater urgency and responsibility" to support Brahimi's mediation efforts and, along with Syria's government, take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis, according to Xinhua.
China has always supported the diplomatic mediation efforts of Brahimi and former envoy Kofi Annan, and is willing to work with the international community to make continuous efforts to achieve a "fair, peaceful and appropriate" resolution, Yang said, according to Xinhua.
The meeting in Beijing comes days after an internationally sanctioned truce that Brahimi proposed failed to take hold. More than 500 people were killed in fighting during what was supposed to be a four-day cease-fire ending Monday.
Activists say 35,000 people have been killed in Syria since an uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March 2011.
The international community remains at a loss about how to stop the war. The U.S. and other Western and Arab nations have called on Assad to step down, while Russia, China and Iran continue to back him.
Anti-regime activists say that in the past weeks, about 150 people a day have been killed in fighting.
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