John Key said will be blood on the hands of everybody including the Security Council and major participants in the Syria crisis if they could not find a resolution.

John Kerry has called for an immediate halt to airstrikes in Syria in an impassioned speech to the UN Security Council chaired by Prime Minister John Key.

Many New Zealanders might wonder why we bother with the UN, until they hear Key lament the council's performance on Syria in his speech.

The bar of depravity is sinking lower, says Ban Ki Moon in blistering attack on Syrian Government.

John Key's session chairing UN Security Council on Syria crisis has a heightened significance after the bombing of a UN convoy delivering aid near Aleppo.

COMMENT: John Key is set to land in the centre of a diplomatic crisis between the US and Russia during leaders' week at the UN over the truce in Syria.

The Russian President will cheer the Syrian agreement as a victory over US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The father of the young Syrian boy pictured washed up on a Turkish beach has accused the world of turning its back on Syria as people continue to die.

Before he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, all 3-year-old Alan Kurdi knew was war. But for a moment his tragic death seemed not to be pointless. Warning - graphic.

New Zealand hopes of a breakthrough in Syria during its Presidency of the Security Council next month will be a tough ask if a debate in the Security Council on Monday was anything to go by.

The five-year-old's eyes are glassy with shock and he seems hardly aware of the blood seeping from a wound in his forehead.

An Islamic State insider has revealed the never-before-told story of the shadowy meeting that spawned the bloodthirsty terror group.

At least two people have been killed and several, including babies, were injured in an air strike on a maternity hospital in Syria's Idlib province.

An offer of amnesty by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been met with scepticism by rebel fighters and residents.

US-backed Syrian fighters have found evidence that the Islamic State has rewritten school textbooks to promote its violent ideology.

In NZ Herald Focus this morning - a boy has been pulled from the rubble of a building destroyed in Aleppo.

Isis fighters shot down a Russian helicopter above Syria, killing both pilots on board.

Relatives of Marie Colvin, a Sunday Times journalist, have filed a lawsuit claiming that Syrian government officials killed her.

She's young, beautiful and studying politics and philosophy. But this young Danish woman isn't your average uni student.

Syria has used sarin nerve gas for the first time since 2013, dropping bombs laden with the chemical agent on Isis fighters outside Damascus.

Nearly 15 years ago, a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, was forced by Syrian prison guards to live in a dark, three-foot-wide, six-foot-deep underground cell.

Syrians voted in a parliamentary election in government-held areas of the country yesterday in a show of support for President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria's democratic opposition is combing through this week's release of the "Panama Papers" to revitalise efforts to identify and freeze billions of dollars amassed by the family and friends of their country's dictator, Bashar al-Assad.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, with his sudden move to withdraw Russian forces from Syria, once more caught international observers by surprise.

COMMENT: The announcement makes it explicit that Putin has no interest in giving Assad the support he'd need to take on the forces of Isis.

Putin's announcement that Russia will begin withdrawing the "main part" of its military from Syria is a surprise potential end to a six-month intervention.

For five years Syria has suffered through a civil war that has tortured its people and destroyed the country, writes World Vision's Chris Clarke. For five years too long children have witnessed things no one should ever see.

There are over a million refugees living in Europe. Living in squalid and challenging conditions. And witness how that influx of humanity has destabilised Europe, writes Rachel Smalley.

Russian's plan is "the best opportunity the Syrian people have had over the past five years for lasting peace and stability".