German High-Ranking Officer: Include Russia in Any Solution

PRESS RELEASE

German High-Ranking Officer: Include Russia in Any Solution

Nov. 26, 2015 (EIRNS)—Four-star general Egon Ramms was the highest-ranking German NATO general. He gave an interview to Rheinische Post online (rp-online.de) yesterday, in which he criticized the Turkish shootdown, called for reconvening the NATO-Russia Council and said that to beat ISIS you need 100,000 troops.

The NATO-Russia Council

"must be urgently revived. If you want to take political decisions in Europe, Russia must be involved. Russian eyes turn more on Europe than on Asia, even if Vladimir Putin does not always admit it".

Russia has been a partner of Syria for decades, needs a basis in the Mediterranean and

"through the active involvement in the Syrian conflict, Russia came back on the world political stage. We need to talk with Russia. Without Russia there is no solution to the Syrian problem."

IS can be militarily defeated, but

"air strikes must be integrated with ground troops, to fight IS from West to the East. Then you must ensure reconstruction, the functioning of civil society, and provide chances for the people. For the first part and maximally for a transition phase you would need more than 100,000 troops."

Also Gernot Erler, the German government official responsible for Russia policy, said in an interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, that "the NATO-Russia Council should finally start again to work in full scope."