the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
said Wednesday after a morning of bitter exchanges.
Speaking to news hounds after the first leg of talks, Ban said a "difficult road" lay ahead, but the time had come for negotiations.
"We did not expect instant breakthroughs from today's conference, but the seriousness and horror of the situation has focused all minds, and there is a determination that all parties will find a way to peace," he said.
"We have a difficult road ahead, but it can be done and it must be done. It is still not too late to end the bloodshed and find the peaceful and democratic future. The moment to act decisively and courageously is now."
Syria earlier had struck a defiant tone, laying a record of atrocities -- rape, arson, even the destruction of Syrian culture itself -- at the feet of rebels and chiding outsiders for trying to interfere.
"This is a Syrian conflict, and it will remain as such," Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told the conference.
His comments came after U.S. Secretary of State John F.
I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
said the path to peace had to involve the world community, and could not include Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
, whom he accused of widespread human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal
liberty...
abuses.
"Mr. Kerry," al-Moallem said, "nobody in the world has the right to get rid of the legitimacy of a president or a constitution or a law or anything in Syria except the Syrian people themselves."