UNITED NATIONS — Frustrated by four years of deadlock among world powers on how to end the war in Syria, the United Nations recruited actor Angelina Jolie Pitt to criticize the inaction that’s allowing the suffering of millions of refugees.

“We cannot look at Syria and the evil that has arisen from the ashes of indecision and think that this is not the lowest point in the world’s inability to protect and defend the innocent,” Jolie told the Security Council on Friday in her capacity as special envoy of the UN Refugee Agency.

Angelina Jolie, left, appears at the United Nations on Friday to draw attention to the world’s inaction on Syria’s 4-year-old war. The Associated Press

“The crisis is made worse by division and indecision within the international community preventing the Security Council from fulfilling its responsibilities,” Jolie said.

More than 220,000 Syrians have died since the bloody war began in March 2011, as Russia, with China’s backing, has blocked Security Council resolutions that threatened the longevity of its ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The two resolutions would have ordered sanctions against the Assad regime for refusing a peace plan and prosecution of the regime by a world tribunal.

Jolie, an Academy Award winner who said she made 11 trips to visit Syrian refugees since the conflict began, said hope is fading among almost 4 million Syrians who were forced to flee across borders. She urged the council to visit Syrian refugees to “see at first hand their suffering and the impact on the region.”

UN humanitarian affairs chief Valerie Amos prefaced Jolie’s speech with an even grimmer picture of the Syrian people’s suffering.

There are fresh allegations of chemical weapons use against civilians who continue to be subjected to indiscriminate fire from air and from underground, Amos said. She added more than 7.6 million people are displaced within Syria.

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