"The Council remains paralysed as it has been for two and a half years," they said. "The world cannot wait for endless failed processes that can only lead to increased suffering in Syria and regional instability." Mr Obama used his own press conference to echo remarks made a day earlier by Samantha Power, his UN ambassador, who said Russia "continues to hold the council hostage" over the Syria crisis and was endangering "the very international system we have been working these decades to build".