China's Special Envoy for Syria Xie Xiaoyan said Sunday that the situation in Syria is headed for a political settlement, while calling for increased cooperation with Egypt on resolving the Syrian crisis.
"We have noticed some countries have adjusted their positions on the Syrian issue. I think this presents a good opportunity, a new opportunity to push forward the political settlement," Xie told reporters after meeting with Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister for Arab Affairs Tarek Al-Kouni.
Xie revealed that he discussed with Egyptian officials the current situation in Syria in an attempt to coordinate the efforts to push forward the political process.
"The relevant parties' agreement on the establishment of the de-escalation zones is a reflection of the very strong desire of the international community that they wish all the parties in the conflict to try to resolve their differences so they can speed up the process of political settlement," he said.
But the envoy emphasized that the establishment of the de-escalation zones must be temporary and should not lead to the separation of Syria.
"The independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria must be respected and protected," Xie said.
On the war against terror, the Chinese envoy hailed the progress achieved so far, while asserting that the fight must continue "because terrorism is a common enemy of the world."
"Our view is all terrorist organizations on the list of the UN Security Council must be dealt with, must be defeated," he said, adding "one thing we have to try to prevent is letting them (the terrorists) regroup so they will come back again."
"When we talk about the fight against terrorism, we not only have to tackle the symptoms, but also have to go after the root causes of terrorism," Xie said.
He noted that a new round of Geneva talks on Syria will be held in October, expressing the hope that the international community will continue the joint efforts to urge the parties to maintain their strong commitment to political settlement.
He stressed that this will help maintain the momentum of the dialogue under the guidance of the UN, expecting more consensuses to be reached among the parties.
Meanwhile, Xie lauded Egypt as a very important country with big influence in the region, citing Cairo has been playing a very important role in resolving the Syrian crisis.
"We would like to continue our consultation, coordination and cooperation with Egypt. We will continue to exchange our views; we will continue to make joint efforts to work together for that end," he said.
The Syrian crisis started on March 15, 2011, and has evolved into a full-fledged civil war that involved outside powers. But the rise of the IS in the country in the past years has complicated the efforts to seek an end to the war.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 310,000 people have been killed during Syria's six-year-old war.
