UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
urged world leaders to stop fueling the bloodshed in Syria with weapons and get
both sides to the negotiating table to end the "biggest challenge to peace
and security in the world."
In his annual state of the world
address to presidents, prime ministers and monarchs at the UN General Assembly
on Tuesday, the UN chief said the response to last month's "heinous use of
chemical weapons" outside Damascus "has created diplomatic
momentum the first signs of unity in far
too long."
He called on the UN Security
Council to adopt an "enforceable" resolution on a US-Russian
agreement to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control. He also
urged punishment for the perpetrators of last month's chemical weapons attack,
possibly at the International Criminal Court.
Earlier in the day, a senior Russian diplomat said talks between Russia and the United States on the conflict in Syria are not going very smoothly and Moscow is concerned a chemical weapons deal may have only delayed US military action.
"Unfortunately it's necessary to note that in contacts with the Americans, things are not going so smoothly...they are not quite going in the direction they should," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in parliament.
He said US officials "always mention that plans to punish Damascus remain in force. We draw certain conclusions from that and assume that the threat of aggression in violation of international law is so far only delayed, not dismissed fully."
This comes as the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that UN chemical weapons investigators are expected to return to Syria on Wednesday to continue investigating allegations of chemical weapons use there.
Russia hopes the UN Security Council will reach agreement this week on
a resolution supporting a deal for Syria to abandon its chemical
weapons, but there is no guarantee, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei
Ryabkov said on Tuesday.
Ryabkov, speaking in the Russian
parliament, reiterated that Russia would not accept a resolution that
would trigger automatic punitive measures in the event of Syrian
non-compliance with its obligations.
"We are pleased that our persistent calls for the return of UN experts to Syria for the investigation of other episodes have born fruit," Ryabkov said in parliament, referring to alleged incidents of chemical weapons use other than an Aug. 21 attack.
"According to the latest information, the group ... is leaving for Damascus tomorrow, Sept. 25," he said.
Aid group: Syrian children at risk of malnutrition
An international aid organization says millions of children in Syria are at risk of malnutrition as the conflict rages well into its third year and food production is collapsing across the country.
Save the Children aid group says four million Syrians more than half of them children are unable to produce or buy enough food.
Thousands are living in battle zones around Syria's major cities, cut off from access all but the bare minimum foodstuffs needed to survive, the US-based group said in a report on the state of hunger in Syria.
The dramatic appeal was released on Monday. It says one in 20 children in areas around Damascus is severely malnourished.
Severe food shortages are being compounded by an explosion in prices for basics, the report said.
On the field:
Syrian state media said a car
bomb has exploded in Damascus, killing at least three people. Activists say the
blast killed at least seven people.
The state-run SANA news agency
says the car bomb went off on Tuesday afternoon in the Tadamon area in the
southern part of the capital, and that 11 people were wounded.
The Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights says at least seven people were killed and 15 were
wounded. The difference in the death tolls could not immediately be reconciled.
There was no immediate claim of
responsibility for the attack. Rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar
Assad's regime have in the past carried out suicide and car bombings.
REUTERS/AP