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United Nations Nations Unies Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs parties to reach a final agreement. Beyond the Four Towns, medical supplies have continued to be removed from humanitarian convoys, with more than 200,000 items having been removed this year alone. And linking humanitarian assistance of any kind to the tit-for-tat provisions of the Four Towns agreement remains unconscionable. As I have said many times, the UN has been and continues to be ready to deploy. Our requests are submitted and trucks are ready to move, but they have been delayed by the same bureaucratic tactics: late responses, lack of facilitation letters, negotiations over the number of beneficiaries. While such problems are being faced with alarming regularity, this month also brought further delaying tactics to deny aid to those in desperate need, such as the slow clearance by Syrian security forces in the warehouses, and in the case of Moadamiyeh, the damaging of items by security forces, trucks had to be re-loaded in the presence of Russian officers to ensure the cooperation of Syrian security personnel. Just yesterday, a convoy intended for Douma, despite having received all necessary guarantees and approvals, was denied access at the last government checkpoint. After waiting over eight hours at the last Syrian checkpoint, it was forced to return to the warehouse. Of course, insecurity has also continued to be a significant factor in limiting deployment. Just two days ago, on 27 September, a convoy to ar-Rastan was cancelled by the UN, when the trucks were at the last checkpoint of Syrian armed forces, due to airstrikes over the town that the UN and its partners were attempting to reach. This is yet another convoy where all sides were informed of the movement, and all sides provided assurances of security, but failed to deliver safe passage. Surely you can imagine the hell for the civilians, who woke up that morning hoping to finally receive life-saving aid, but finding themselves instead under relentless attack. Mr. President, We are now awaiting the response from the government to the October inter-agency convoy plan, submitted on 19 September. The UN has requested to reach 962,800 people in 29 besieged, hard-to-reach and priority cross-line areas. A response is expected in the next day, and I call on the Syrian authorities to respond positively and on time to this request, and to see the request response implemented in a timely manner. We cannot allow another month to go by where we wait three weeks before the first cross-line convoy. As insecurity increases, civilian suffering does as well. Sustained and safe access must be granted, based on the UN’s assessment of need. Mr. President, Syria is bleeding. Its citizens are dying. We all hear their cry for help. As humanitarians we are doing all we can. Last week world leaders came to New York, sat around this very table and met in ministerial level meetings, all with no tangible results. Instead, while the world leaders were meeting, violence actually increased – more civilians and mor