UNITED NATIONS

U.N. Secretary Gen. Urges End to War in Syria

As Obama pledged support for Syrian rebels.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the international community on Tuesday to “not look the other way as violence spirals out of control” in Syria. Ban opened the General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting with a speech focused on the atrocities in Syria, telling world leaders that the conflict was “a regional calamity with global ramifications.” Ban’s speech struck a less aggressive note than President Obama’s address at the gathering Tuesday, in which he pledged support for Syrian rebels attempting to oust “a dictator who massacres his own people.” It’s not clear whether the U.N. will act to quell the violence that has raged in Syria for the past 18 months. China and Russia have vetoed three efforts to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stop the fighting.