Knud Bartels, a Danish general and the chairman of NATO's military committee, said today that the alliance won't take any military action in Syria - or Iran, for that matter - until all political options have been exhausted.

"No military actions hy NATO will be taken, neither in Syria or Iran, until all political means to achieve a political solution are used," he told reporters. "And it is up to all 28 member states of NATO to decide what the steps by NATO will be."

[...] "I'm very happy to see at the moment that there seems to be in the coming days an opening of dialogue by the United Nations to find a political solution with Syria... the shooting down of a Turkish plane... without any warning has highlighted the crisis again."