The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly denounced Syria's crackdown Friday in a symbolic effort meant to push the deadlocked Security Council and the world at large into action on stopping the country's civil war.
Kofi Annan said Thursday he will step down from his high-profile role as special envoy for Syria at the end of the month, delivering blistering criticism of world powers' failure to unite over the country's escalating violence.
Kofi Annan has resigned as the United Nations' and the Arab League's special envoy for the Syrian crisis.
The Palestinians are bracing for possible punitive reactions by the U.S. and Israel if they go ahead with plans to seek U.N. General Assembly recognition of "Palestine" as a non-member observer state, according to an internal document obtained Thursday.
The Syrian regime threatened Monday to use its chemical and biological weapons in case of a foreign attack, in its first ever acknowledgement that it possesses weapons of mass destruction.
A new rebel group boasting some 1,000 fighters launched an operation Sunday to capture Syria's largest city, Aleppo, while government troops using helicopter gunships and heavy artillery rolled back opposition gains in the capital, Damascus.
The U.N. Security Council has delayed a vote on a new Syria resolution until Thursday in a last-minute effort to get key Western nations and Russia to reach agreement on measures to end the dramatically escalating violence.
Fighting between rebels and Syrian forces intensified and spread across the capital of Damascus on Tuesday as diplomats scrambled to shore up a tough international response to the "civil war" ahead of a U.N. deadline for withdrawing observers.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and international envoy Kofi Annan stepped up pressure on the divided U.N. Security Council on Friday, urging that it demand a halt to the escalating violence in Syria and promise "consequences" if the conflict doesn't end.
