UN chief renews calls for end to Syria ‘cataclysmic conflict’

The UN chief said in a statement, released on Tuesday, that the international community should be ashamed of the crisis in Syria which has been continuing unabated for more than four years.

“The suffering of the Syrian people continues to plumb new depths,” Ban said in the statement.

He pointed to various forms of violations of human rights committed in the country, urging, “There must be no impunity for such inhumanity.”

Since March 2011, Syria has been beset by the scourge of violence and terrorism which have reportedly left more than 230,000 people, including almost 11,500 children, dead.

“Syria is on the brink of falling apart,” he stressed, saying the continuation of the conflict in the country puts "at even further risk what is already the most unstable region in the world.”

Takfiri terrorist groups operating against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been committing heinous crimes in the Arab country.

He further noted that the continuation of the Syrian crisis which will result in more deaths is not “strategically, politically, and morally” acceptable.

“The international community, and in particular the Security Council, cannot afford to waste any further time in ending the cycle of violence,” Ban said, adding, “The human cost of further delay should be unacceptable to all.”

He further called on the international community to cooperate with the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and help the implementation of the Geneva Communiqué which was adopted on June 30, 2012 after the first international meeting on the Syrian crisis in the Swiss city of Geneva.

The UN special envoy has been holding talks with the Syrian government, opposition groups and international stakeholders to terminate the conflict in Syria.

De Mistura has repeatedly emphasized that President Assad must be involved in any peaceful solution to the crisis in the Arab country.

“I appeal in the strongest possible terms to the international community to join together with my Special Envoy to genuinely work for the implementation of the Geneva Communiqué before further irreparable damage is done to Syria, its people and the region,” he added.

The communique, endorsed by the UN Security Council, lays out key steps in a process to end the violence in Syria.