Syrian vice president says both sides ‘going down a losing path’

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syria's longtime vice president said Sunday, Dec 16, that his regime and the rebels are both going down a losing path after 21 months of civil war, The Associated Press reports.

The comments by Farouk al-Sharaa came as an Islamist faction of Syrian rebels captured an infantry base in the northern city of Aleppo, and Syrian warplanes blasted a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, killing eight people and wounding dozens, activists said.

Al-Sharaa told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar that neither the rebels nor the Assad regime can "decide the battle militarily."

Balancing that, he said the Assad regime "cannot achieve change."

The solution to the conflict must come from within Syria, al-Sharaa said, adding that any political settlement "must include stopping all types of violence, and the creation of a national unity government with wide powers."