Thank you. I'll be as quick as I can here.
Mr. Lowcock, thank you for your presence here.
You said earlier that you weren't aware of allegations of UN aid being deviated. I read an article—and maybe you saw it in the Foreign Affairs magazine, September 20, 2018—provocatively titled “How UN Humanitarian Aid Has Propped Up Assad”. Essentially, the concern the author has, and the concern I have, is how the UN system is overly deferential to the state in which the aid is delivered. As part of your mandate, “humanitarian assistance should be provided with the consent of the affected country...and the affected State has the primary role in the initiation, organization, coordination, and implementation of humanitarian assistance”.
Could you speak to what co-operation you have with the Assad regime in the context of delivering aid in Syria?
Thank you.