UN chief urges all countries to show solidarity with Syrian refugees

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on all countries on Wednesday to show solidarity and accept nearly half a million Syrian refugees for resettlement by 2018.

Ban, kicking off a ministerial conference hosted by the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Geneva, said: "This demands an exponential increase in global solidarity."

Referring to UN-led efforts to end the five-year conflict that has killed at least 250,000 and driven nearly 5 million refugees abroad, mostly in the region, he said: "We have a cessation of hostilities, by and large holding for over a month, but the parties must consolidate and expand it into a ceasefire, and ultimately to a political solution through dialogue."