South Africa has condemned the escalating violence in Syria and has urged that country to seek a peaceful political solution.
The department of international relations said in a statement that South Africa had consistently expressed its deep concern about the deteriorating political, security, socio-economic and humanitarian situation in Syria - and called for an immediate stop to the violence.
Meanwhile, the United States has warned Syria to co-operate with a UN-backed peace plan.
The peace plan, put forward by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, was endorsed by the UN
Security Council earlier this week, with support from Russia and China.
