UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on a divided UN Security Council to unite and bring peace to Syria, as the West prepared for possible military strikes against Damascus and Britain said would present a resolution to the Security Council.
"Syria is the biggest challenge of war and peace in the world today. The body entrusted with maintaining international peace and security cannot be missing in action," Ban said, referring to the Security Council.
"The council must at last find the unity to act. It must use its authority for peace," said the UN chief in a speech on Wednesday at The Hague, where he was attending centenary celebrations at the Peace Palace, seat of the UN's International Court of Justice.
"The Syrian people deserve solutions, not silence." Ban's comments came as the US and its allies were building their case for military action against President Bashar al-Assad's regime over alleged chemical weapons attacks, despite stern warnings from Russia.
The UN chief called for more time for UN weapons inspectors to investigate claims of a chemical attack last week, and made a strong call for a diplomatic solution.
"We must pursue all avenues to get the parties to the negotiating table," he said. He also warned that any move to supply weapons to either side would only worsen the situation.
"To those providing weapons to either side, we must ask: what have those arms achieved but more bloodshed? "The military logic has given us a country on the verge of total destruction, a region in chaos and a global threat.
Why add more fuel to the fire?" Britain said it will seek backing from the Security Council for "all necessary measures to protect civilians" in Syria, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday.
A British-drafted resolution "condemning the chemical weapons attack by Assad" will be presented to a meeting of the Security Council's five permanent members in New York on Wednesday, Cameron said in a Twitter message, as the West geared up for possible military action against Assad's regime.
"We've always said we want the UN Security Council to live up to its responsibilities on Syria. Today they have an opportunity to do that," Cameron said.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said the draft focused on Chapter 7 of the UN Charter and aims to protect civilians from chemical weapons, which Western nations accuse Assad's forces of using in an attack outside the Syrian capital last week.
