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Situation in Syria Shows 'Cold War is Back' - UN Chief

STOCKHOLM (Sputnik) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres suggested in an interview with the Swedish SVT broadcaster, released on Monday, that the United Nations was incapable of solving the problems Syria was facing, especially in the light of the existing disagreement within the UN Security Council.
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Asked about what his message would be to the Syrians who had lost their faith in the United Nations since their country has been devastated by war for seven years, Guterres recalled that there were various forces from across the world, as well as multiple divides between them in Syria.

"It’s not the UN that will be able to solve the problem … It is obviously naive to think that the UN can magically solve that problem, especially when the Security Council is so divided as it is," Guterres said.

The UN secretary-general also noted that the current situation around Syria had shown that "the Cold War is back." However, at present, there are no two homogeneous well-controlled blocks, and no mechanisms of control over the situation, which existed in the Cold War era.

US-led Strikes on Syria Didn't Help Build Peace - UN Envoy
The situation around Syria escalated in the wake of the reported chemical weapons attack in the city of Douma near Damascus on April 7. The alleged attack prompted France, the United Kingdom, and the United States to fire over 100 missiles on what they called the Syrian government’s chemical weapons sites, since the western states accused Damascus of using hazardous substances against civilians.

The Syrian authorities denied these claims. Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar Assad, condemned the western strikes, and said it had warned in advance that provocations with the use of chemical weapons might be staged in Syria, aimed at putting the blame for such attacks on the government, and thus justifying external aggression against Syria.

The Fact-Finding mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is currently deployed in the Middle Eastern country, investigating into the reported Douma chemical attack.

The disagreements within the UN Security Council in relation to Syria have reflected in the council's recent failure to adopt either the Russian-drafted or the US-drafted resolutions on the alleged Douma chemical weapons attack.

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