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UN / SYRIA WRAP
STORY: UN / SYRIA WRAP
TRT: 2.46
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 4 JUNE 2014, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
4 JUNE 2014, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Sigrid Kaag, Special Coordinator of the joint mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) walks up to the stakeout position
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
3. Close up, reporter’s notepad
4 JUNE 2014, NEW YORK CITY
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sigrid Kaag, Special Coordinator of the joint mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW):
“The deadline will not be met, what is important however that all the materials are out of harms way and the destruction can start as soon as possible aboard the US ship, as considerable time has lapsed and considerable costs and time and investments have been made to get the job done.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
5. Close up, reporter’s notepad
4 JUNE 2014, NEW YORK CITY
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Sigrid Kaag, Special Coordinator of the joint mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW):
“We have an indication from the authorities that as soon, rather immediately, when security conditions permit, removal from site 2 will happen. Additional indications are that this is expected to be soon.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
7. Close up, reporter’s notepad
4 JUNE 2014, NEW YORK CITY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Sigrid Kaag, Special Coordinator of the joint mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW):
“Isopropanol, a very critical precursor to the production of Sarin, has been destroyed 100 percent. However, the urgency, the time, the pressure to remove the remaining 7.2 percent is very, very critical and I will be back in Damascus the next few days to pursue that conversation with my team and counterparts.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
9. Close up, reporter’s notepad
4 JUNE 2014, NEW YORK CITY
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Sigrid Kaag, Special Coordinator of the joint mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW):
“The most difficult was left for last because it was always a contested area; hence the Syrian authorities in their plan for the removal had left the materials at a number of sites in that geographical location for the latter half, knowing that we would need additional security assets and possibly military operations. So, it’s not the materials themselves, they are standard, they have also been removed from Homs are and other areas, it was the location.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
11. Close up, reporters’ laptop computers
4 JUNE 2014, NEW YORK CITY
12. Pan right, Kaag walks away
13. Wide shot, Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos at the dais
14. Med shot, reporters
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“The monitoring report presented to the Security Council shows that the resolution has not delivered what it intended, and as ASG Kang reported to Council members last week, we continue to see rising levels of violence in Syria.”
16. Med shot, reporters
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“It’s about how do we best reach the needs of everyone inside Syria. Cross-border is an aspect of that, but cross-line and making sure we are able to cross inside Syria for areas that are controlled by different groups, and areas that are controlled by the government. We have to maximize cross-line and we also have to look at how best we can meet the needs of those people in hard to reach areas.”
18. Med shot, reporters
19. Zoom out, end of press conference
Given that the 30 June 2014 deadline for the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons programme will not be met, the focus now is on the immediate removal of the remaining materials, the head of the Joint Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations (OPCW-UN) said today (4 June).
Referring to the destruction of the full arsenal of the country’s chemical weapons in line with the decisions taken by the UN Security Council and the OPCW Executive Council Special Coordinator Sigrid Kaag told reporters “the deadline will not be met,” but stressed that “what is important however that all the materials are out of harms way and the destruction can start as soon as possible aboard the US ship, as considerable time has lapsed and considerable costs and time and investments have been made to get the job done.”
The focus now is on the urgency of the removal of the remaining 7.2 per cent of the declared chemical weapons material, which is still held at one site, and is made difficult owing to the volatile security conditions.
Kaag said that Syrian authorities have indicated that “as soon, rather immediately, when security conditions permit, removal from site 2 will happen.”
She noted that “Isopropanol, a very critical precursor to the production of Sarin, has been destroyed 100 percent.”
The Special Coordinator said the removal of the remaining 7.2 percent “is very, very critical and I will be back in Damascus the next few days to pursue that conversation with my team and counterparts.”
She said “the most difficult was left for last because it was always a contested area; hence the Syrian authorities in their plan for the removal had left the materials at a number of sites in that geographical location for the latter half, knowing that we would need additional security assets and possibly military operations. So, it’s not the materials themselves, they are standard, they have also been removed from Homs are and other areas, it was the location.”
The removal of the most critical material for destruction began in early January, in line with an agreement brokered by Russia and the United States, by which Syria renounced its chemical weapons material and joined 1992 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons.
The removal of the chemical agents out of the country involves transporting them to port of Latakia, where they will be shipped on commercial vessels provided by some Member States. They will then be loaded onto a United States ship and destroyed at sea using hydrolysis.
Briefing on the humanitarian situation Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos told reporters that violence continues to rise in Syria and “the monitoring report presented to the Security Council shows that the resolution has not delivered what it intended.”
Amos said the focus was on “how do we best reach the needs of everyone inside Syria” and pointed out that cross-border access from neighbouring countries “is an aspect of that, but cross-line and making sure we are able to cross inside Syria for areas that are controlled by different groups, and areas that are controlled by the government” was as important.
The resolution, adopted in February, demanded “that all parties, in particular the Syrian authorities, promptly allow rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access for UN humanitarian agencies and their implementing partners, including across conflict lines and across borders.”
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