Syrian people must not be failed again

Syria has weighed on my mind for a long time: 15 years of trauma for its people and 15 years of failure in international engagement. I was directly involved in the latter – as a senior member of the United Nations’ Special Envoy’s Office, and later as head of UN OCHA – and so I cannot claim innocence before the Syrian people.

In my time at the UN, I had to attend numerous meetings with senior of...