国际英语新闻:Syrian gov't works hard to find political solution to long-running war: FM

DAMASCUS, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said Monday that the Syrian government is working hard to find a political solution to the more than seven-year-long crisis, according to the state news agency SANA.

Al-Muallem said the Syrian government side has taken part in all international meetings that had been convened to discuss the Syrian issue, the latest of which is supporting the efforts to form a constitutional committee.

The minister made the remarks during his meeting in Damascus with delegations participating in the meetings of the Executive Committee of the World Peace Council and the International Young Democrat Union.

He stressed that the decisions regarding the political solution should be without foreign interference, particularly in the matter of the country's constitution.

The Syrian government has made it clear recently during UN envoy to Syria de Staffan de Mistura's visit to Damascus that the constitution is a sovereign Syrian matter and should be discussed and dealt with in Syria without foreign interference.

The minister also mentioned the situation in the northwestern Idlib province, where a demilitarized zone was imposed by Russia and Turkey.

He said the Turkish side has so far failed to push the radical rebels to withdraw from the buffer zone, "which indicates the Turkish reluctance to live up to its pledges and thus Idlib is still under the control of the Turkish-Western terrorism."

Meanwhile, the minister slammed the U.S. intervention in Syria, charging that the U.S. is supporting the Islamic State (IS).

"The U.S. is fighting all but the Daesh (IS) and moreover, the U.S. is flagrantly supporting Daesh," he said, using the Arabic acronym of IS.

He said the U.S. support to IS has enabled the group to reach the Syrian-Iraqi border, adding that Washington and its Western allies want to prolong the Syrian war.

Additionally, the minister said the government is exerting efforts to rehabilitate infrastructure in war-torn areas to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their homes.