UNITED NATIONS, Dhu-AlHijjah 07, 1437, September 09, 2016, SPA -- The United Nations said that the Syrian regime has effectively stopped aid convoys this month and the city of Aleppo is close to running out of fuel, making U.S.-Russian peace talks in Geneva Friday even more urgent. “Convoys are not rolling at the moment in Syria,” U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien told reporters in Geneva, although an air bridge to the Kurdish-controlled northeastern city of Hasaka has continued operating, and there have been a handful of evacuations from the besieged towns of Foua and Madaya. O’Brien said that the Syrian regime vets U.N. aid plans on a monthly basis, and its late and partial approval of the program for this month meant that no aid had yet gone in. “We are on September 9, and the supplies under the September plan have not yet started,” O’Brien said. As the humanitarian chief spoke, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were meeting nearby for a third time in as many weeks to clinch a nationwide ceasefire deal. U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, speaking alongside O’Brien, said that the talks were “addressing complex, delicate, and difficult issues.” “The conclusions could make, let’s be frank, a major difference,” de Mistura said. De Mistura said that helping about 250,000 people besieged in eastern Aleppo, where a battle for control has escalated in the past month, was becoming urgent. --SPA 20:44 LOCAL TIME 17:44 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w