CCTV9英语新闻：停止在叙利亚的暴力和流血是当务之急（在线收听）

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that the Syrian government and opposition should take the Geneva Two peace talks as an opportunity to start political reconciliation. The comments came after Wang Yi carried out separate meetings with representatives from both sides in the Swiss city of Montreux.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Moallem in Montreux, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2014. (Xinhua/Qian Yi)

Montreux, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2014. (Xinhua/Qian Yi)

Wang Yi said that political resolution is the only way out for the three-year-long crisis. He added that both sides should build trust and narrow their differences. The peace talks are seeing the opposition and the Syrian government sit down face to face for the first time since their dispute began in 2011.

Wang also urged for a ceasefire as soon as possible. This would help create the necessary environment and conditions for pushing peace talks further.

"All parties in Syria must seek common ground while showing differences and be ready to give as well as take. Inflexibility will lead to a dead end. Only showing understanding and accommodation will lead to the way forward and what is urgent now is to end hostilities and violence. To create the necessary environment for peace talks, all parties must summon up the political will to make the decisions to keep the direction of a political settlement and draw on this full experience from elsewhere to find a middle way, keeping in mind Syria’s national conditions and accommodating to the interests of all parties." Wang said.