UN Security Council adopts first resolution charting path to Syrian peace


The international community has sent a "clear message" that the war in Syria has to stop now.

That's what the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, told the United Nations Security Council after the 15-member body passed the first resolution to chart a path towards peace in Syria.

Around 250,000 people have died since the conflict began in Syria almost five years ago. 

Around 4.4 million have fled the country as refugees. 

Yet up to this point, world powers meeting in the UN Security Council have been unable to agree how to stop the bloodshed.
 
But late on Friday afternoon, the Council unanimously passed a resolution aimed at bringing a ceasefire to the war-torn country.
 
The United States currently holds the rotating Presidency of the Council. 
Secretary of State John Kerry presided over the meeting. 

"This Council is sending a clear message to all concerned that the time is now to stop the killing in Syria and lay the groundwork for a government that the long suffering people and that battered land can support. After four and a half years of war this is the first time we have been able to come together at the United Nations in the Security Council to embrace a road forward. During that time, one Syrian in 20 has been has been killed or wounded, one in five is a refugee, one in two has been displaced."
 
Attending the meeting, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon said the fighting had gone on for too long. 

He added that United Nations was ready to relaunch talks on ending the war.

 
SOURCE: Daniel Dickinson, United Nations.