Ban Ki-moon warns of 'imminent and real' threat of civil war in Syria

Damascus, June 8 (ANI): UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that Syria faces the risk of civil war, which he believes is 'imminent and real'.

He said this after a new massacre in Syria's central Hama province claimed 78 lives.

Ban Ki-Moon said that Syria could 'quickly go from tipping point to breaking point' and made a fresh appeal for calm on all sides following the atrocity.

"The Syrian people are bleeding," Sky News quoted Moon, as saying after addressing the U.N. Security Council.

"They are angry. They want peace and dignity. Above all they want action," he added.

He said there is little evidence that Syria is complying with the peace plan formed by mediator Kofi Annan to end violence in the country.

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said, during the same news conference, that he was holding talks on bringing key world and regional powers into a contact group on the Syrian crisis.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned that Syria is 'clearly on the edge' of a descent into further violence and called for more action by Russia and China to press Assad's regime to co-operate with peace efforts. (ANI)