United Nations (Antara Babel/ Xinhua) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Friday stressed that "there is no military solution" to the Syrian conflict, reaffirming the organization's determination to seek a political settlement to the long-standing crisis in the Middle East country.
"There is no military solution to this conflict, even if both the government and the opposition, and their supporters, think there can be," the secretary-general said while addressing reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.
"The military path points directly towards the further disintegration of the country, destabilization of the region and inflammation of religious and communal tensions," Ban said.
The Syrian crisis broke out in March 2011, leading to a massive exodus of Syrian refugees into neighboring countries, such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
The United Nations has been pushing for a political solution to the Syrian crisis with painstaking efforts to bring the Syrian government and opposition to the negotiation table for a Syrian- led political process in the country.
"The worsening of the conflict is also making the delivery of urgent humanitarian assistance much more difficult," Ban said, appealing to the international community to support the neighboring countries bearing the greatest burdens of refugees and upheaval.
Meanwhile, Ban said, "The suffering of the Syrian people makes a political solution all the more important."
"Joint Special Representative [Lakhdar] Brahimi and I continue to push for a negotiated transition and to get the parties to the table in Geneva as soon as possible," Ban said. "All countries involved must uphold their responsibilities to seek a resolution of this tragedy."
Brahimi, the former Algerian foreign minister, was appointed in September to replace former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to engage in good offices in Syria on behalf of the United Nations and the Arab League.
Earlier this month, Brahimi said in Geneva following the talks held there among senior U.S., Russian and UN officials, that the international conference on Syria is likely to be held in July.
Russian and U.S. officials announced last month their intention to convene an international conference to find a political solution to the Syria crisis, which has reportedly claimed nearly 93,000 lives over the past two years.
The crisis has also left 6.8 million people in need, and sent more than 1.5 million Syrians fleeing to neighboring countries to seek refuge.
The goal of the conference will be to achieve a political solution to the conflict in Syria through a comprehensive agreement between the government and the opposition for the full implementation of the Geneva communique issued on June 30, 2012.
