AlQa'dah 18, 1434, Sep 24, 2013, SPA -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged world leaders to stop fueling the violence in Syria with weapons and work to get both sides to negotiate a political settlement to end the "biggest challenge to peace and security in the world." In his annual state-of-the-world speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Ban said the response to last month's "heinous use of chemical weapons" outside Damascus "has created diplomatic momentum-the first signs of unity in far too long." The secretary-general called on the U.N. Security Council to adopt a binding, "enforceable" resolution on a U.S.-Russian agreement to place Syria's chemical weapons under international control. The U.N. chief urged the council to adopt the resolution as soon as possible and adopt measures that could send humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people. He also called for the punishment for the perpetrators of last month's chemical-weapons attack, possibly at the International Criminal Court. In his signature theme at this year's General Assembly, Ban said world leaders should work on achieving development goals to help people around the world. "This is an era of wondrous opportunities," the secretary-general said. "Our generation can wipe poverty from the face of the Earth." He said the people of the world want to know what leaders are doing to fix problems including climate change, poverty, and ending conflicts.
