UN General Assembly urges immediate halt to violence in Syria

August 04, 2012: As the fighting in Syria continues unabated, the United Nations General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution condemning the increasing use of heavy weapons by authorities and urging all sides to immediately cease armed violence.
The resolution, presented by the Arab Group, was adopted by a vote of 133 in favour to 12 against with 31 abstentions. It comes two weeks after the Security Council failed to agree on collective action to help stop the bloodshed.
It condemns “the increasing use by the Syrian authorities of heavy weapons, including indiscriminate shelling from tanks and helicopters, in population centers and the failure to withdraw its troops and the heavy weapons to their barracks…”

The 193-member body also condemned all violence, “irrespective of where it comes from,” and demanded that all parties implement the relevant Security Council resolutions to achieve a cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon once again voiced his regret over the divisions that have paralyzed action in the Security Council, adding that the immediate interests of the Syrian people must be paramount over any larger rivalries of influence.

“The conflict in Syria is a test of everything this Organization stands for,” he told the meeting, adding “I do not want today’s United Nations to fail that test.”
He warned that, despite repeated verbal acceptances of the six-point plan presented by the Joint Special Envoy for the UN and the League of Arab States for the Syrian Crisis, Kofi Annan, both the Government and the opposition continue to rely on weapons, not diplomacy, in the belief that they will win through violence.

In addition, the city of Aleppo is currently the epicenter of a “vicious” battle between the Syrian Government and those who wish to replace it, said the Secretary-General. “But there are no winners in Aleppo today, nor anywhere else in the country. The losers in this escalating battle are the people of Syria.”
Mr. Ban stressed that united international pressure can make a difference. “All of us have a responsibility to the people of Syria. We must use all of the peaceful means in the UN Charter to help them unite around a Syrian-led transition process that is based on dialogue and compromise, not bullets and arrests.”