Syrian Vice President Predicts Stalemate for His Country’s Civil War - East Idaho News
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Syrian Vice President Predicts Stalemate for His Country’s Civil War

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GETTY W 073112 SyrianRebels?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1355740556009Scott Peterson/Getty Images(DAMASCUS, Syria) — Syria’s vice president says his country’s civil war is destined for stalemate with neither the rebels nor the government being able to prevail.

In an interview with the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, Vice President Farouk al-Sharaaa declared, “The opposition forces combined cannot decide the battle militarily.  Meanwhile, what the security forces and the army units are doing will not reach a conclusive end.”

Al-Sharaa said neither the army of President Bashar al-Assad nor the opposition can claim to be the “sole legitimate representation of the Syrian people.”

“With each passing day, the military and political solutions get further away,” al-Sharaa said.  “The way events are heading will lead to an uncomfortable place where things will definitely go from bad to worse.”

He called for a “historic settlement” that would include Syria’s neighbors and the United Nations Security Council.

Al-Sharaa has influence.   He has also served as Syria’s foreign minister under al-Assad and his late father, Hafez, for more than 20 years.

Meanwhile, Syrian fighter jets bombed a Palestinian camp in the southern part of Damascus on Sunday.  The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes killed eight civilians.  The group also said that more than 40 Syrian rebels and government soldiers were killed in fighting near the Syrian military academy outside Aleppo.

Some 40,000 Syrians have been killed since an uprising against Assad’s regime began 21 months ago.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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