SOCHI. Sept 23 (Interfax-AVN) - The Collective Security Treaty Organization's member-states are seriously concerned about the current developments in Syria and about the situation surrounding that country, the CSTO's Collective Security Council said in a statement after a meeting in Sochi.
The CSTO member-states "advocate efforts to achieve peace, stability, prosperity and progress in Syria and in the whole of the Middle East region," the statement says.
"The CSTO member-states believe that external intervention, including militarily, cannot be accepted, as it can further upset stability in that country and far beyond the region," the statement says.
"Any foreign interference in the Syrian conflict bypassing the UN Security Council or in violation of the UN Charter would be against the law," it says.
The CSTO member-states supported Russia's efforts to settle the Syrian crisis exclusively by political-diplomatic means and backed the Russian-American proposals on Syria's chemical weapons disposal, agreed upon in Geneva on September 12-14.
"The CSTO member-states advocate the earliest possible settlement of the crisis by Syrians themselves with the observance of the Syrian Arab Republics sovereignty, an end to the violence and the launch of a broad political dialogue between the authorities and opposition without preconditions and in compliance with the Geneva Communique of June 30 2012," it says.
The statement also says that the CSTO member-countries "support efforts to call an international conference in order to lay a foundation for reconciliation and normalization in Syria."
"They resolutely condemn all manifestations of terrorism and violence against civilians, especially violence incited by religious or ethnic strife, and oppose illegal moves to militarize Syria's internal conflict," according to the statement.