UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday he plans to visit camps for Syrians next week in Turkey and Jordan to raise awareness on the plight of the refugees and the unabated 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 a UN General Assembly meeting. He urged the international community to support Lakhdar Brahimi, the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria, in his diplomatic efforts to end the war in Syria. "If we genuinely unite behind Mr Brahimi and behind one process, it is still possible to avert the worst and enable a Syria in peace to emerge from this crisis," Ban was quoted as saying by DPA. Brahimi, who attended the General Assembly meeting, said prospects for a workable peace plan in Syria remained "very poor indeed." More than 460,000 people have fled Syria into neighbouring countries and another 2.5 million are in need of humanitarian assistance inside the country, the UN said. Ban said the need for humanitarian assistance has become "more acute" with the looming onset of winter. He said the number of refugees was projected to increase to 700,000 by early next year. Ban will travel early next week to Doha to attend the conference on climate change and then visit Kuwait before continuing to Turkey and Jordan.
