UN Security Council to meet Friday on Syria

The UN Security Council will meet on Friday to hear UN envoy Staffan de Mistura explain his decision to suspend Syrian peace talks until the end of the month.

The closed-door meeting was requested by Venezuela, which chairs the 15-member council for the month of February.

Venezuelan Ambassador Rafael Ramirez told reporters that the meeting would allow the council to "be in contact with Mister de Mistura and to support whatever he needs to have success in discussions."

The envoy decided to suspend the peace talks until February 25, saying "more work" was needed to prepare all sides for the negotiations on ending Syria's five-year war.

"The most important is that the countries that have influence on the opposition and on the government also have the commitment to follow with confidence the negotiations in Geneva," Ramirez said.

There is no "possible military solution in Syria", he added.

The talks had been tipped as the most important push so far to end the conflict, which has killed more than 260,000 people and forced half the country's people from their homes since March 2011.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a Syria donors' conference in London that the "temporary pause shows just how deep and difficult the divisions are."

"The coming days should be used to get back to the table, not to secure more gains on the battlefield," he said.

The United States, France and Britain slammed Russia for providing air power to a Syrian army advance on the key city of Aleppo that has sent tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing.

Russia separately accused Turkey of preparing for an armed invasion of Syria, while Saudi Arabia said it was ready to send ground troops to Syria to fight the Islamic State.

Russia, the United States and other key countries involved in the Syria conflict are to meet in Munich on February 11 to chart a way forward for the peace talks.

Photo: Russia Today