London, Aug 5 (IANS) British Foreign Secretary William Hague has described the situation in Syria as "bleak" and said that a peaceful solution to the 17-month-long crisis was now unlikely, according to the Telegraph.
Hague said it had proved impossible to persuade Russia and China to back international efforts to find a diplomatic path to peace in the Middle East country.
He did not rule out suggestions that former British prime minister Tony Blair could replace Kofi Annan as the UN envoy to Syria.
"It is a bleak time for Syria. This is, I'm afraid, the situation we warned about for some time. We won't give up on the diplomatic work but given the situation we will of course step up our humanitarian assistance," Hague told Sky News.
"We don't want the situation to be resolved by violence. We want a peaceful transition in Syria. Sadly, we do not have the unity in the UN Security Council to put the decisive pressure on the Assad regime."
"Kofi Annan will be carrying on with this work until the end of August. Whoever takes on that role, it is going to need some change in the circumstances on the ground for Russia and China to change their position."
"If persuasion and argument was going to achieve a change of position, we would have done it by now. It might only be a further change of the circumstances - the further collapse of the regime, greater bloodshed - which brings Russia and China to change their mind," Hague said.
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