UNITED NATIONS, June 20. /ITAR-TASS/. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Syrian authorities and opposition forces to lift their blockades and provide access for humanitarian cargoes to all regions of the country.

Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Ban Ki-moon called on parties to the Syrian conflict to ensure free humanitarian access across internal frontlines and Syrian borders. 

He noted that the United States’ and Russia’s diplomatic efforts had once helped to have the conflicting parties in Syria sit down at the negotiating table and called on these countries and other members of the United Nations Security Council to resume cooperation.

He admitted however that special responsibility for the conflict settlement in Syria rested with other countries of the region, primarily with Iran and Saudi Arabia. He hailed recent contacts between these two countries and said he hoped they would be able to build trust and put an end to confrontation in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon.

Military strikes against gunmen from the group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq is not the best way to settle the situation in that country but, on the contrary, might only aggravate it, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.

He added that military strikes would have only a short-term effect and even be counter-productive if there was no progress on the path of forming an inclusive government.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has proposed a six-clause plan of Syrian settlement.

He announced a plan of six clauses to outline a comprehensive path of international efforts in Syria. The United Nations’ immediate priorities in Syria, in his words, were to put an end to violence and to stop weapons supplies to that country.

A new United Nations envoy for Syria will soon be named, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon noted, adding that the Geneva communique of June 30, 2012 would remain the basis for peace settlement in that country.

He stressed the communique had a clear plan of a democratic political transition process and would be a basis for any peace settlement.