U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Friday announced that he plans to visit Syrians in Turkish and Jordanian refugee camps and called for greater efforts to help resolve the conflict in Syria. "We can only succeed if all sides take the necessary steps, and if there are converging actions by the international community, in particular the Security Council," Ban told an informal meeting of the General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters in New York. "If we genuinely unite behind Mr. Brahimi (U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria) and behind one process, it is still possible to avert the worst and enable a Syria in peace to emerge from this crisis," Ban said. Ban described the humanitarian aspects of the crisis as "becoming more acute," with possibly up to four million people inside the country in need of aid before winter sets in. "The flow of refugees also continues, with ever more serious impact on regional security - we expect the total number of refugees to reach 700,000 by early next year," the secretary-general said. "At the same time, the Syria Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan is only 50 per cent funded and the Regional Response Plan is only 38 per cent funded," Ban said. "We continue to ask urgently for additional funds and improved access to all those needing humanitarian assistance." Brahimi told the General Assembly that the "fighting has expanded geographically to almost all parts of Syria and intensified very significantly. In other words, threats to regional peace and stability are neither abstract nor something in the distant future," Brahimi said. The joint special representative said that there are only two alternatives for the way forward in Syria. "Either a political process or Syria becomes a failed state," Brahimi said.
