Assad: Dialogue only way out of crisis

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday stressed the significance of dialogue as the only option to find a way out of the current crisis in the country. In a message to Pope Francis conveyed by Syrian Minister of State Joseph Sweid during his meeting with the Pope's Secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, Al-Assad said: "The crisis will be solved through national dialogue among the Syrians and under a Syrian leadership without foreign intervention so as to enable the Syrians to determine their future and leadership through ballots." He stressed in the message the Syrian government's readiness to participate in the international conference on Syria "Geneva 2, according to a presidential release. Stopping terrorism requires having the countries which are involved in supporting the armed terrorist groups stop providing any sort of military, logistic or training support, he said. On his part, Archbishop Parolin said during the meeting Pope Francis is constantly monitoring the situation in Syria and is deeply concerned over the suffering of the Syrian people. Pope Francis underscored the need to solve the crisis in Syria through dialogue among the Syrians without foreign intervention, Parolin added.