No easy fix to a particularly savage war - Failing Syria

WITH SYRIA, a coalition of more than 100 humanitarian and human rights organisations, says that 83% of the night-time lights in Syria that were visible from space just four years ago have gone out.

This frightening, back-to-the-Dark-Ages metaphor is chillingly illustrative, though it does not compare to the scathing report from humanitarian agencies and the UN, which condemns international powers for not delivering on UN Security Council resolutions designed to end the conflict in that country and protect its civilians.

The Failing Syria report is deeply critical of the world’s most powerful societies for not having the will to apply UN resolutions on the delivery of humanitarian aid to the victims of the war. It is tragic that noble and entirely appropriate resolutions that should save lives and offer some prospect of peace cannot have the impact intended but the reality, the unavoidable realpolitik, is somewhat more challenging and a lot more complex.