The credibility of the UN Security Council was on the line recently when Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticised the failure of the five permanent members — China, Russia, France, Britain and the USA — to implement the three resolutions on humanitarian aid to civilians in Syria.

More than 200,000 have perished in the turmoil over the past four years. Now the killings perpetrated by ISIS have lent a heart-wrenching dimension to the bloody strife in a part of the Arab world where the Spring of 2011 has had little or no effect. The fact that aid to civilians has been a non-starter compounds the prevarication of the UN Council over Western intervention against the regime of Bashr al-Assad. More accurately and in terms of international law, humanitarian intervention — in the truest sense of the term — has come a cropper in Syria despite pious signals of intent. It is a tragedy of the people. Is it possible that the fundamental discord within P-5 — China and Russia on the side of the repressive regime and France, Britain and America against — has scuppered assistance to the beleaguered Syrians? The figures are awesome — 7.6 million people have been displaced by the war between rebels and the forces of Bashr al-Assad; another 3.9 million have fled to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

On the fourth anniversary of the Arab Spring, Mr Ban&’s reflections on Syria are couched in a message to the comity of nations that the UN represents. On deeper scrutiny, he has underlined the failure of the Security Council as it faces what he calls an “exponential rise in war crimes, crimes against humanity and other human rights violations’’. He may have iterated the chilling reality, but critically enough he has clothed his message with a caveat to the Security Council — The Security Council has in the past shown its ability to act. I call upon the Security Council to take determined measures to resolve this crisis and the way forward. We cannot shirk this collective responsibility.’’

Not to put too fine a point on it, it is the responsibility of the world in the face of the failure of the Council to implement as many as three resolutions on humanitarian assistance. The latest, approved unanimously in December, extended cross-border aid deliveries to Syrians in rebel-held areas without approval from Damascus. On closer reflection, the country showcases the failure of the diplomatic effort; the failure of the Security Council illustrates that diplomacy has not translated into action. The United Nations — the “Famous Five” in particular — has failed Syria.