Secretary-General Expresses Deep Regret over Security Council’s ‘Disappointing’

Inability to Adopt Text on Ending Violence in Syria

 

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

The Secretary-General deeply regrets that the Security Council has been unable to agree on a resolution supported by the League of Arab States to bring an early end to the violence and the killing in Syria.

This is a great disappointment to the people of Syria and the Middle East, and to all supporters of democracy and human rights.  It undermines the role of the United Nations and the international community in this period when the Syrian authorities must hear a unified voice calling for an immediate end to its violence against the Syrian people.

As Syria’s crisis deepens, bringing escalating violence and suffering to the Syrian people, the Security Council has lost an opportunity to take unified action that could help end this crisis and forge a peaceful future, with democracy and dignity for all of the Syrian people.  All violence and human rights violations, especially those carried out by the Syrian authorities, must end immediately.  This is the common yearning of people around the Arab world.  The Syrian people deserve no less.

In spite of today’s vote, the international community and the Syrian people must redouble our efforts to seek a Syrian-led political transition to a democratic, plural political system.  This has now become even more urgent.

The United Nations stands ready to step up its efforts to work closely with the League of Arab States and others in the international community to find a peaceful and durable solution which will bring the violence and the killing in Syria to a halt.

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For information media • not an official record