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The mission of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors. some 216,000 people were denied medical assistance because convoys that did not take place or because medicines and medical supplies were removed from trucks. Concerted efforts to reach the 45,000 people besieged in Nubl and Zahra remain unsuccessful, despite humanitarian staff negotiating for over a week with opposition groups to secure safe passage. Humanitarian workers risk their lives every day to try to help others, but there is less access and less predictable assistance to the ever-increasing numbers of people in extreme need. Small pockets of progress – like the Government’s new procedure for clearance of convoy trucks – are welcome. But overall the picture gives little cause for optimism. I told the Council that it is unacceptable that the parties to the conflict continue to deny besieged communities food, medicines and freedom of movement. And it is unacceptable that convoys with life-saving supplies are still prevented from entering hard-to-reach areas. The time for waiting is over. I asked the Council members to do all they can to put people before politics - to help us get urgently-needed aid to people, supported by all those with influence over the Parties, across all lines. We need pragmatic and sustainable arrangements which result in substantially greater cross-line and cross-border access particularly to besieged locations. We need them now. And we need security guarantees to enable this to happen. I told the Council that we can only do this with the support of Council members and all those with influence over the parties. Every day that the international community fails to prevent the harming of Syrians for military gain, we allow the achievements of 150 years of humanitarian principles to be further eroded. Thank you