Solving refugee crisis requires taking care of Syria, Obama says

US President Barack Obama said Tuesday that solving the migrant crisis in Europe would require resolving the Syrian civil war, calling for international cooperation and pledging that the US would take in “its share” of refugees.

The US must work together with all European countries to ensure that refugees “are safe; that they are treated with shared humanity; and that we ultimately… deal with the source of the problem, which is the ongoing crisis in Syria,” Obama said during a meeting with King Felipe VI of Spain.

Aid groups criticized the US Tuesday for refusing to take in more than a fraction of Syrian refugees, many of whom have flooded into Europe in recent months, straining EU efforts to deal with them.

“The United States feels it is important for us to also take our share of Syrian refugees as part of this overall humanitarian effort,” the president told the Spanish king, referring to 10,000 refugees the Washington has agreed to accept.

International efforts over the last four years to end the Syrian civil war diplomatically have failed, and Western countries have limited the use of military power in the conflict to airstrikes against Islamic State jihadists.

In 2013, Obama threatened to take military action against Damascus after a chemical gas attack, apparently committed by President Bashar Assad’s government, that killed hundreds of civilians.

Washington decided not to carry out a strike, however, when Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons stockpiles, although the international community has expressed concern that the country may not have destroyed all its weapons.

The UN set up a panel in August in order to investigate who should be held responsible for a series of fatal chemical attacks carried out in the country.

AP and AFP contributed to this report.