BEIRUT: The head of the UN said on Sunday that “bureaucratic resistance” by Bashar 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 the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television channel he was no longer in direct communication with Assad after months of the Syrian president “not keeping his promises.”

Last month, Ban said none of the warring parties in Syria were meeting UN demands for aid access and demanded the Security Council take action on violations of international law.

In Sunday’s interview, he said a February Security Council resolution demanding rapid, safe and unhindered aid access had “not helped much” and that there were still 3 million people in areas the UN could not reach and deliver humanitarian aid to.