The head of the United Nations said on Sunday that "bureaucratic resistance" by Bashar al-Assad's government was preventing aid getting to millions of Syrians in need due to the three-year-old conflict. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Al-Arabiya television channel he was no longer in direct communication with al-Assad after months of the Syrian president "not keeping his promises." In Sunday's interview, Ban said a February Security Council resolution demanding rapid, safe, and unhindered access had "not helped much" and that there were still 3 million people in areas the U.N. could not reach and deliver humanitarian aid to. "It is not that we are in shortage of something to deliver, it is just because of bureaucratic resistance by the Syrian government," he said.
