Washington, Nov 14 (AFP) A US-led coalition will forgeahead in its fight against the Islamic State group in Syriaand Iraq until a UN peace process makes further headway,Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said.
"We're not just going to walk away right now until theGeneva Process has traction," he told reporters.
"You need to do something about this mess now, not justfight the military part of it and then say good luck on therest."The former marine general added that the coalition's goalhad always been to fight IS while finding a diplomaticsolution to end the Syrian civil war.
"We are going to make sure we set the conditions for adiplomatic solution," he said.
His comments come after the US and Russia issued a jointstatement Saturday saying there was "no military solution" tothe Syrian conflict.
"The presidents affirmed their commitment to Syria'ssovereignty, unity, independence, territorial integrity andnon-sectarian character," it said, while calling on allparties to participate in UN-led talks in Geneva.
A new round of negotiations is scheduled to take placefrom November 28, a process headed by the UN special envoy onSyria, Staffan de Mistura.
Seven previous sessions between the Syrian regime and theopposition failed to overcome the main obstacle -- the fate ofPresident Bashar al-Assad.
More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria sincethe conflict began in March 2011 with anti-governmentprotests. (AFP)AJR.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.