Angelina Jolie criticises UN failure to act on Syrian refugee crisis

Actress Angelina Jolie has pleaded with world powers to help the millions of Syrian refugees, sharply criticising the UN Security Council for being paralysed by its division over Syria’s four-year conflict.

Jolie briefed the council as special envoy for the UN on refugee issues. Nearly 4m Syrians have fled the conflict into neighbouring countries, which warn they are dangerously overstretched.

“We cannot look at Syria, and the evil that has arisen from the ashes of indecision, and think this is not the lowest point in the world’s inability to protect and defend the innocent,” Jolie said. “We are standing by in Syria,” she said, adding that the council’s powers lie unused because its members cannot agree on how to address the conflict.