LOC20:15
17:15 GMT
TOKYO, May 20 (KUNA) -- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday he had to accept resignation of joint UN-Arab League envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi "with great reluctance," China's official Xinhua News Agency reported from Shanghai.
"But that doesn't mean there is deadlock," Ban told Xinhua, acknowledging little prospect for the resumption of the Geneva talks on settlement of the conflict in Syria.
Brahimi announced that he will step down at the end of May. Two rounds of talks this year saw both sides sticking to their positions and yielded only modest cooperation on the humanitarian issue of aid access to the city of Homs. A third round has been planned but not scheduled. Ban urged those countries which have influence on the Syrian government and opposition forces to exercise their influence, so they will come back to the dialogue table.
"I am afraid both sides seem to have the illusion that either side can beat the other side by military means. There is no military option. There is only one peaceful solution to political process," Ban was quoted as saying.
On the UN humanitarian mission in Syria, Ban said there are more than 3.5 million people who UN has never reached. The UN is working hard to destroy Syria's chemical weapons, Ban said.
Up to "93 percent of chemical weapons in Syria have been destroyed. We will completely destroy them." Ban urged the Syrian government and the opposition forces to reconcile themselves, stressing that the UN stands ready to resolve the crisis through mediation.
Ban, who is on an official visit to China, is attending the two-day Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit in Shanghai beginning from Tuesday.
"The CICA summit will promote preventive action. There are historical legacies, territorial disputes, maritime issues in Asia, but nothing is impossible to overcome if we are sincerely engaged in dialogue," Ban said.
The CICA was established in 1992 as a forum for dialogue and consultation. It now has 26 member countries and 11 observers. China will hold the CICA presidency from 2014 to 2016.
Member states include Bahrain, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Eleven observer states include Japan and the US, as well as four organizations such as the League of Arab States.
Calling Asia and the Pacific an area of "dynamism and great transformation," Ban said there are some conflicts, but there is great hope and prospects for prosperity. (end)
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