U.N. chief admits ‘shame,’ ‘anger’ over failure in Syria

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday he felt “shame” and “anger” at the international community’s failure to end the Syrian conflict.

“I confess to you my anger and my shame. Anger at observing the Syrian government, extremist and terrorist groups and terrorists relentlessly destroy their country,” he said.

“Shame at sharing in the collective failure of international and regional communities to decisively act to stop the carnage that has afflicted the Arab brothers and sisters of Syria,” he told an Arab summit meeting in Egypt.

After the U.N. chief expressed his disappointment, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate and its allies seized on Saturday the city of Idlib, the second provincial capital to be lost by the government.

Al-Nusra Front, the official Syrian affiliate of Al-Qaeda, also announced on its Twitter accounts that it had captured the city, posting photos of government buildings in central Idlib now under its control.