As you all know, the situation in Syria now is extremely difficult, and I think all indicators are pointing in the wrong direction when it comes to security, when it comes to the economy and when it comes to the political process. When it comes to the security situation, of course, you know I have appealed all along that we need to see that the war in Gaza is not spreading to Syria and that we see de-escalation and containment.

Then I also said that the crisis in Syria when it comes to the security in the northwest, in the northeast, that we need to look deeper into this and develop a nationwide ceasefire. When it comes to the economic situation, the humanitarian needs are increasing. I had a meeting yesterday with the UN country team and they are telling me that 16.7 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance. And as I told the Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad, the problem now is that while the humanitarian needs are increasing the fundings are decreasing.

We will as the United Nations, we will continue to work on increasing the funding, but we all know that to be able to get away from both the security challenge, the economic challenge, we need progress on the political front, and I'm afraid I have nothing new to report to you on that.

You have heard my proposal when it comes to the Constitutional Committee. I repeated that today to Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad. I said that as long as we don't have an agreement between the opposition and the government, we should continue to meet in Geneva and develop the Constitutional Committee and the work of the Committee in the manner that could give hope to the Syrian people.

I will have several meetings now and I hope to be able to, at least, after those meetings to report some progress. Thank you, good to see you.