The United Nations Security Council has taken up the issue of a bloody crackdown on antigovernment protesters in Syria during a meeting in New York on Monday, local time.

But the United States and Russia failed to narrow their gaps on what approach the international community should take to end the bloodshed in Syria.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the international community to raise a unanimous voice against the Syrian government’s violence. He also called for measures to prevent Syria from falling into a deeper crisis.

U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton said during the UN Security Council meeting that different approaches must be taken to distinguish the Syrian government forces’ bloody crackdown on civilians and the physical resistance that civilians use as self-defense.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blamed both the Syrian government and extremist terrorists, such as Al-Qaeda, for allegedly escalating the violence in Syria.