By Stoyan Zaimov
NEW YORK – The World Evangelical Alliance called for the protection of Syria’s minority Christian population ahead of the major Geneva II conference on Wednesday (Jan. 22), which is set to discuss solutions to the ongoing Syrian crisis.
“The reality is that this is just part of the process. They are not going to get everything accomplished in these two days, so we need to measure our expectations,” said Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, secretary general of the WEA, in an interview with The Christian Post on Tuesday. “At minimum we are looking for a cessation in the armed conflict, that people will stop dying, that they can come to an agreement that they can stop the killings.”
The conference, which is sponsored by the U.N. along with Russia and the U.S., is hoping to bring together for talks a delegation representing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and representatives of some of the opposition forces looking to topple his administration. The civil war in Syria, which has been going on since 2011, has killed over 100,000 people and displaced over 9.3 million, according to U.N. estimates.
Syria’s government received intense international scrutiny and threats of military intervention after it was accused of committing a large-scale chemical attack in Damascus in August, which reportedly killed 1,429 Syrians, including 426 children, though Assad has denied that his forces were behind the attack.
Read more at http://global.christianpost.com/news/world-evangelical-alliance-calls-for-protection-of-christians-as-syria-peace-talks-open-113108/