"According to me the ones who can settle the problem are Syrian president Bashar al-Assad himself and his opposition groups, two Syrian neighbors namely, frankly speaking, Iran who is close to President Assad and Turkey who can communicate with the opposition, and five veto holders in the UN," he said in a press conference after the ASEAN Summit here on Friday.
He said if the nine parties would move under the support of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon he believed a solution would be found.
President Yudhoyono said he planned to write letters to the parties upon arrival in the country.
"This is a genuine idea from Indonesia for Syria," he said.
He said Indonesia actually wished to be able to play a more active role in the effort but the key to the settlement of the conflict was in the hands of the nine countries.
"Morally we are keen and are fully ready to help solve the problem," he said.
President Yudhoyono said Indonesia wished to propose three important steps for the solution of the protracted civil war in Syria namely cease-fire, humanitarian aid and peaceful political transition.
"The ideas are actually acceptable but the most important thing is the cease-fire," he said.
President Yudhoyono expressed deep concern over the Syrian conflict that has gone for more than two years and claimed thousands of civilian lives.
"As human beings, brothers of the Syrian people, we always feel painful upon seeing continuing human tragedies. People, children and women, the innocent, fall victims, die day and night every day. Every night we see them on television. The world meanwhile could not as yet agree to find its solution while President Assad and leaders of his opposition groups would not as yet wish to sit down and discuss it," he said.
He said the world`s inability to find a solution to the problem would later be recorded in history.
President Yudhoyono on the occasion also touched on the Rohingya problem in Myanmar.
Indonesia has urged the Myanmar government to settle the problem and expressed its readiness to help.
"I know it is a communal conflict but unless it is handled well it could affect badly on other countries including Indonesia whose population are mostly Muslim," he said.
Due to the conflict, a number of Rohingya Muslim ethnic group members have fled to neighboring countries including Indonesia.
President Yudhoyono visited Singapore and Myanmar before attending the ASEAN Summit on April 22-26 in Brunei Darussalam.
reporting by M Arif Iskandar
(M041*G003/F001)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
