Socialist International calls for an immediate end to the ongoing bloodbath in Syria and for united efforts by the international community to end the conflict

As the world continues to witness the tragedy taking place in Syria, the Socialist International calls for renewed concerted efforts by the international community to stop the carnage and human suffering which has intensified following the breakdown last month of the brief ceasefire that lasted less than a week.

The Syrian people are hostages to a conflict that transcends their country and whose solution today lies primarily outside their borders. According to United Nations figures, some 13.5 million Syrians are today requiring humanitarian assistance. Of these, more than half are internally displaced and close to five million are refugees. In the past week alone we have seen the latest horrors that people in Aleppo, including women and children, have suffered as a result of multiple bunker-buster and incendiary bombs on residential areas and medical facilities.

The world urgently needs a solution to this war, both to save the Syrian people who are suffering unjustly, and to counter the increasingly divisive and challenging times we live in today, which requires more determined multilateral action to halt and prevent the threats of further and potentially more dangerous conflicts.

The bombing in Syria must stop, humanitarian assistance must be urgently provided, and the war must be brought to an end. The announcement of talks in Lausanne to be held tomorrow is an encouraging development which the Socialist International welcomes. It is vitally important that those engaged in this dialogue ensure that these talks are carried out in an environment of constructiveness and a genuine will to bring a swift end to the conflict.

October 24 is United Nations Day, being the day on which the UN was founded in 1948, and this year it should mark the beginning of the end of the conflict in Syria.