CWN - As representatives of 30 nations and four organizations prepared for a January 22 conference on the Syrian conflict, a Syrian bishop urged the international community not to “destroy” the nation.

“The participants at the Geneva II conference will have to start respecting the characteristics” of Syria, said Bishop Antoine Audo, SJ, the Chaldean Catholic bishop of Aleppo, according to a Fides report. “We believe that we must respect the country with its problems, support it in its progressive journey towards justice and freedom, rather than taking advantage of its weakness simply to destroy it.”

“As men of the Church, this is the perspective with which we look at the present and the future of Syria,” he added. “And we ask ourselves what and why is there the need to destroy a country that was stable and also safeguarded treasures of civilization. Maybe someone thought that Syria was like Libya, that it was easy to change the system from the outside, perhaps for economic interests. As it turns out, it was fallacious conjecture.”