UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Thursday said arming the parties involved does not help to address prolonged crisis in Syria, which has claimed more than 70, 000 lives so far.

"The Secretary-General believes that any attempts to arm the protagonists in the fighting in Syria are unhelpful," Eduardo del Buey, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing when asked about outside involvement in the Syrian conflict.

The UN chief has continuously reiterated his firm conviction that resorting to violence and military means will only lead to more suffering and destruction, saying that "a political solution is the only way out."

Representatives from dozens of nations held an international conference called "Friends of Syria" earlier on Thursday in Rome to discuss rendering more support to the opposition, whose members in exile have been calling on the international community to provide the rebels on ground with qualitative weaponries to tilt the balance in the fight against the Syrian army.

John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, reportedly said that the Obama's administration will provide the rebels Free Syria Army "non lethal" help, with Washington offering 60 million U.S. dollars as for the opposition.

The U.S. government has declared its latest intention to push for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's resignation and a political transition to end the almost two-year-long conflict in Syria.

Meanwhile, the West has been skeptical about rendering arms to the rebels out of fears that such weapons might fall in the hands of the extremists on ground.

Observers believe that the international community had become more convinced of the need for a political solution in Syria out of fear that the sectarian-themed rebellion might spill largely over neighboring countries and rattle the security of the region as a whole. Endi

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