UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – A U.N. Security Council meeting on Syria’s aid crisis achieved nothing new yesterday except to highlight global paralysis on the 17-month conflict as western powers warned that military action to secure civilian safe zones was still an option.
While the Security Council impasse between western nations and Russia and China means a resolution to approve such a move appears impossible, countries could act outside the authority of the world body and intervene, as happened in Kosovo in 1999.
“How long are we going to sit and watch while an entire generation is being wiped out by random bombardment and deliberate mass targeting?” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu asked the Security Council.
“I was expecting this meeting to produce tangible solutions to the suffering of the Syrian people,” he said.
“We don’t have anything new to say to thousands of Syrians who suffer at the hands of the regime as the U.N. is entrapped by inaction.”
The meeting produced neither a resolution nor a statement approved by the 15 Security Council members.
Ankara has repeatedly urged the United Nations to protect displaced Syrians inside their country as the number of refugees swells in neighboring states.