UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Sunday urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stop cracking down on his own people, dpa reported.
"Stop the violence against your people as the path of oppression will lead to a dead end," Ban told a conference in Beirut on democracy in the Arab world.
The warning came as Syrian government forces continued to shell the town of Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon, for a second consecutive day, and two people were killed by security forces in the flashpoint city of Homs, according to opposition activists.