UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has pleaded for a divided Security Council to "pull back from the brink of a deeper catastrophe" over Syria. But as violence continues to tear apart the Middle Eastern country, diplomatic unity is nowhere to be found.

With the US, Europe and most Arab states on one side, and Russia and China on the other, the two camps stuck to their guns during the ministerial council meeting.

The Secretary General urged the sides to agree on a united resolution condemning the Assad regime. Russia and China, who have veto power in the Security Council, had previously rejected two proposed UN Security Council resolutions accusing president Assad of instigating the violence.Moscow and Beijing branded the resolutions as “unbalanced.”

During Monday's meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her country doesn’t “believe that sovereignty demands that this council stands silent when governments massacre their own people, threatening regional peace and security in the process”.