UN chief condemns failure of Syria truce

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon yesterday voiced bitter frustration at the failure of the Syria ceasefire and stressed the need for international unity to end the violence.
"I am deeply disappointed that the parties failed to respect the call to suspend fighting," Ban said in the South Korean capital Seoul, where he received a peace prize from his home country.
"This crisis cannot be solved with more weapons and bloodshed," Ban said, calling on the UN Security Council, regional countries and all parties "to live up to their obligations and promote a ceasefire".
The four-day truce proposed by UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi collapsed amid clashes, shelling, air raids and car bombings hours after it had been due to take effect with the start of Eid ul-Azha holidays on Friday morning.
The Syrian army and opposition forces blamed each other for breaking the ceasefire.
Although Ban did not seek to apportion blame in his speech, he noted the bombings of "densely populated" cities by the Assad regime.
Russia yesterday was to host the UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to seek new ways of tackling the crisis in Syria after a truce failed to take hold.