GENEVA (AP) — The Jordanian prince taking the helm of the U.N.’s human rights office urged the world Monday to set as its first priority bringing a halt to the gruesome and conjoined conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

Newly appointed U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid al-Hussein, in his first speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, described Syria as a bloodbath. He said the Islamic State group formed from the civil war’s chaos was an unprecedented force of violence against ethnic and religious groups.