In view of the deadlock of recent days, the fact that the United Nations Security Council managed to agree today to send an observer mission to Aleppo on the basis of a Franco-German initiative provides at least a glimmer of hope.

In countless talks and contacts, we have explicitly underlined that the United Nations can play a greater role on the ground and urged that the necessary conditions for this be created.

The unanimous adoption of the resolution sends a message to the people in Aleppo and all over Syria that the international community is in fact still capable of acting in concert.

I hope that the resolution will now be implemented quickly and that the mission can help to alleviate the terrible suffering of the people in Aleppo. One merely has to think about the fate facing them to realise that every day and every hour count.