The United Nations and Arab League joint special representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said here Thursday "at this time, the situation is bad in Syria and getting worst."

Brahimi, the former Algerian foreign minister and the UN trouble shooter, made the statement as he was speaking to reporters after his briefing at the UN Security Council on the current situation in Syria, where the political crisis and violence have been going on for 20 months.

Brahimi said that he will reiterate this message on Friday when he is scheduled to brief the UN General Assembly on Syria.

"The parties themselves are not ready to have an internal solution," Brahimi said. "The region is not really capable in helping for a peaceful solution."

Consequently, "the place where a peaceful solution can be initiated is the Security Council," he said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Brahimi here on Wednesday morning, the deputy UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey said. "The secretary-general had repeatedly stated that there was no military solution to the situation in Syria."

Brahimi was appointed to replace Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general, in September to engage in good offices on Syria on behalf of the United Nations and Arab League.

"I have been challenged to produce a plan. I think that we now have the elements of the plan," Brahimi said. "These elements can not be put together until the council has come together and is ready to adopt a resolution that can be the basis for a political process."

Also speaking to the press after the closed council meeting, Vitaly Churkin, the Russian permanent representative to the United Nations, said that his government is concerned at the deterioration of the situation in Syria, and slammed any foreign arms support to the warring parties in the Middle East country as "harmful." Enditem

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