The Syrian crisis could take up to 10 years to settle, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said.
The events in Syria reflect a regional issue, Dempsey added, that’s related "to a competition at best and a conflict at worst between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, and it’s been hijacked at some level on both sides by extremists – al-Qaida on one side and Lebanese Hezbollah and others on the other side."
The general pointed out that the conflict "is about a 10-year issue and if we fail to think about it as a 10-year regional issue we could make some mistakes," RIA Novosti quotes him.
