A destroyed neighborhood in Aleppo

MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said all powers must sit at the negotiating table to forge an end to the war in Syria “instead of unleashing a new world war.”

“The Americans and our Arab partners must think well: do they want a permanent war?” Medvedev told Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper, due to be published on Friday. It would be impossible to win such a war quickly, he said according to a German translation of his words, “especially in the Arab world, where everybody is fighting against everybody.”

“All sides must be compelled to sit at the negotiating table instead of unleashing a new world war,” he said.

He said the United States and Russia must exert pressure on all sides in the conflict in order to secure a ceasefire.