“Syria’s UN representative Bashar al-Jaafari said the government ‘calls on the UN secretary general to assume his responsibilities… and to make efforts to prevent any aggression against Syria,’ the state news agency SANA reported.  The letter also urged the United Nations to help seek a ‘peaceful political solution to the crisis’ in Syria, where more than 110,000 people have been killed in violence since an uprising against the regime began in March 2011.  The report came as Russia adopted an increasingly antagonistic posture against the use of force in Syria, further beefing up its naval presence in the region with the dispatch of an intelligence ship to the Mediterranean.”