US, EU must jointly resolve Mideast crisis

The photograph of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi who drowned along with his 5-year-old brother and their mother during his family's failed bid to flee civil war-torn Syria to Europe has pricked the world's conscience. Partly in response to the global outcry over the refugee issue, Germany and Austria have opened their borders to accept more refugees from the Middle East.

Yet other European countries are still reluctant to take in the refugees. While France and Germany hope to "fairly divide" the refugees throughout the European Union, the Czech Republic and Poland say they are not responsible for the Middle East crisis and refuse to accept their share. The Czech and Polish governments blame the United States' Middle East policy for the crisis and demand that it take responsibility for it.

On the other side of the Atlantic, a White House spokesperson has admitted that "it's a genuine tragedy", but said the US has no plans to take in Syrian refugees.