Give peace a chance UN SG requests more time for inspectors in Syria

Ban Ki-moon asks what providing arms to both sides has achieved in Syria.

THE HAGUE: United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon said in a statement on Wednesday that the catastrophic civil war in Syria had costed over 100,000 lives and had "raised the spectre of chemical warfare."

Speaking at a ceremony marking the centennial of the Peace Palance in The Hague, the UN Secretary General said that the use of chemical weapons were an atrocious violation of international law, regardless of the reasons and circumstances in which they were used.

Earlier, Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that 355 people had died after around 3,600 patients displaying “neurotoxic symptoms” flooded into three hospitals on August 21, the day of the alleged attacks in Damascus.

Adding that a UN investigation team was on the grounds to establish facts, Ban said that those "providing arms on either side" should be asked about what that had achieved other than bloodshed.

"Give peace a chance.  Give diplomacy a chance.  Stop fighting and start talking," he said, reiterating the need to adhere to the United Nations Charter.

Calling Syria "the biggest challenge of war and peace in the world today", he said that the UN fact-finding team had collected valuable samples and interviewed victims and witnesses but needed more time to do its job.

Syria's information minister has denied that the country's regime ever used chemical weapons.

The US has, however, openly blamed the Bashar al-Assad's regime for the use of chemical weapons in the Damascus attacks and has said that Obama's administration would demand accountability for the "moral obscenity".

There has been no independent verification of the number of dead, and MSF was the first independent source to report such a high toll.