UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria warned the international community Friday that the Mideast nation will become a failed state unless there is a negotiated political solution to the 19-month conflict.

Lakhdar Brahimi, told the U.N. General Assembly that nobody wants this to happen because it would have disastrous consequences across the region, leading to lawlessness, warlords, banditry, narcotics, arms smuggling and worst of all communal and ethnic strife.

After speaking to the government and opposition and visiting Syria's neighbors, Brahimi told the 193-member world organization that he believes that only the Security Council can put together a peace plan. He urged the U.N.'s most powerful body to overcome its deep divisions and adopt a resolution aimed at ending the civil war, which activists say has killed at least 40,000 people since March 2011.