NATO chief rejects military response to Syrian unrest

The appropriate response to Syria's growing civil conflict today is a political one and not military intervention, according to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

"The right response to this situation remains a political response," Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels on 2 July.

Referring to a 30 June conference in Geneva, where the international community accepted a UN-sponsored peace plan for Syria, he said it was "now vital" to enforce that plan. "This conflict has gone on for too long, cost too many lives and has put the stability of the whole region at risk. It is a crisis that directly affects one of our allies [Turkey] and is one of the gravest security challenges the world faces today," he stated.

The UN plan calls for the creation of a transitional national unity government with full executive powers. It would embrace opposition and other groups as well as members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government - all of whom would draft a new constitution for the country and oversee elections.

However, Syria's main opposition groups rejected the new international proposal because it does not explicitly forbid Assad from participating in the new structure.