News   /   Syria   /   News

UN Security Council failing to maintain world peace: Red Cross

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Director of Operations Dominik Stillhart

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has accused the United Nations Security Council of failing in its mission to maintain peace in the world.

"I use the Security Council as an example of showing how … the body that has been created to maintain peace and stability in the world has huge difficulties in coming together around even as serious a conflict as Syria," ICRC Director of Operations Dominik Stillhart told AFP in an interview in the Senegalese capital Dakar late on Thursday.

"If you look at the Security Council there is today hardly any subject or conflict where (it) comes together and drives a political solution," Stillhart said.

He further noted that the world is facing armed conflict at an unprecedented level. "Looking at the entire world, what we see is an unprecedented number of armed conflicts… generating ever-growing humanitarian needs."

Stillhart criticized the international community for failing to work together to end wars and humanitarian crises, noting that the world is caught in a "vicious circle" of increasing violence.

He also warned that the lack of cooperation is leading to prolonged crises that are escalating into regional conflicts, referring to Syria as an instance.

The Syrian crisis “is affecting the entire Middle East” and it is “definitely today the worst humanitarian crisis that we are facing, with more than half of the population that have been displaced," Stillhart said.

Syrians walk amid the rubble of buildings in Eastern Ghouta town of Ain Tarma, east of the capital Damascus, on May 14, 2015. (© AFP) 

Elsewhere in his remarks, the ICRC official slammed the UNSC’s ineffectiveness in dealing with the armed conflicts around the globe.

"I really don't know what is the alternative (to the UNSC); I'm just observing that the one that we have today has difficulties to do the job for which it was created.”

The 15-member UNSC has been described as "outdated" and "undemocratic" by a number of world leaders, including South African President Jacob Zuma, who said in 2013 that it "might have by now outlived its usefulness."

Syria has been grappling with deadly foreign-backed militancy fueled by Takfiri groups since March 2011. More than 222,000 people have been killed in the crisis so far, according to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Over 7.2 million people have also been internally displaced, and more than three million have been forced to flee the country, the United Nations says.

MSM/AS/MHB


Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Press TV News Roku