UNITED NATIONS - President Barack Obama deployed an unlikely ally in his push for countries to do more to address the global refugee crisis: A six-year-old boy, not from Syria, but a town just 20 miles (32km) from where world leaders were meeting to discuss the issue.
Mr Obama spoke at a United Nations summit on refugees of the magnitude of the crisis and listed the usual reasons he gives in calling for for more forceful action.
But near the end of his 20-minute remarks, he talked about six-year-old Alex from Scarsdale, NY, a suburb of New York City.
Mr Obama said he received a letter from Alex after an image of a five-year-old Syrian boy in Aleppo captured the world's attention last month. That boy, Omran Daqneesh, was injured in a bombing and was filmed silently sitting in an ambulance, wiping blood from his wounds - a scene Mr Obama described as "heartbreaking".
The president said Alex wrote to tell him he wanted Omran to come live with him and his family in Scarsdale.
"Since he won't bring toys," Mr Obama said Alex wrote. "I will share my bike, and I will teach him how to ride it. I will teach him addition and subtraction. My little sister will be collecting butterflies and fireflies for him. We can all play together. We will give him a family and he will be our brother."
For a president who has been criticised as detached and usually outlines policy arguments in pragmatic terms, such an emotional tack is not typical. As he nears the end of his presidency, and has become more reflective, Mr Obama also seems more at ease in making arguments designed to appeal to his audience's heart-strings.
This article was first published on Sept 20, 2016.
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