Mr. Farouq Al Habib:

I thank the Deputy for raising this point again. As I stated before the Deputy arrived, working with the United Nations is a slow bureaucratic process. Regrettably, we believe most UN offices and teams are not able to adapt their internal policies and procedures to the hard conditions in which we work. However, we had several meetings in the past with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, team in Turkey and in Jordan, while trying to co-ordinate with it. Until recently, it was not legally possible for OCHA to provide direct assistance to the White Helmets because it is not registered as a legal entity anywhere. This is because we operate in Syria and there is no government in our area with which to legally register. Two weeks ago, we heard from OCHA that it now is able to co-operate with non-registered organisations. Consequently, we submitted a file requesting to be added to its platform. In any event, my point is there are many bureaucratic obstacles and it was easier for us to work directly with governments and agencies, such as USAID, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Japan International Cooperation Agency as well as with international NGOs like Handicap International or others. However, until now, we have not worked with the UN.