Unifeed
UN / SYRIA PRESSER
STORY: UN / SYRIA PRESSER
TRT: 03:19
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 18 DECEMBER 2015, UNITED NATIONS / RECENT, NEW YORK CITY, USA
RECENT, NEW YORK CITY, USA
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
18 DECEMBER 2015, UNITED NATIONS
2. Various shots, press briefing in progress
3. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, United States Secretary of State:
“What we’ve achieved today is to pass a resolution in the United Nations Security Council for the first time, since this war started, that embraces a road map we are actually trying to end it; a road map where we try to bring out it, a peaceful resolution through the political process, obviously.”
4. Med shot, press briefing in progress
5. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, United States Secretary of State:
“We begin with a clarity about the steps that need to be taken. We also have a time frame that the transitional process needs to try to be achieved within the target time of 6 months. In addition, the election needs to take place within 18 months, same starting time. So after 9-6 months of the transition we are about a year away, hopefully, or less, from the election. It also embraced a ceasefire. A ceasefire is critical to the capacity of the parties to come together and be able to negotiate and to begin to deal with the problem of refugees, displaced people, the humanitarian crisis of Syria.”
6. Med shot, press briefing in progress
7. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister:
“I am not too optimistic about what it has been achieved today but a very important step has been made to create the requisite external conditions for Syrian to be able to do, what we all expect them to do, and that is to agreeing on the issues that will determine the future of their country.”
8. Med shot, press briefing in progress
9. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister:
“Only the Syrian people are going to decide their own future certainly, and that also covers the future of the Syrian president, and that’s our deep conviction.”
10. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, United States Secretary of State:
“I don’t want to open up…there are still some issues that we are trying to work through, and one of them is the percentage of the Russian strikes that are actually going after the opposition versus Daesh, and so we are trying to work on that. But if 80 percent are hitting opposition rather than hitting Daesh, it’s a challenge and we are trying to resolve that so that we cooperate. I don’t say this as a division I say this as a difference of how [intelligible] we may better cooperate and those are the things that we are trying to work through and I am confident that we will. I agree with Sergey completely, the objective is and it would be if we were frozen into inaction, but we have been obviously doing an extraordinary amount against Daesh and we now have Special Forces committed to that fight and other assets. So I don’t think anybody doubts our commitment to the effort to destroy Daesh.”
13. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister:
“I can only confirm that with regards to the question regarding our strikes the proposal to coordinate on this remains on the table for the two and half-month time.”
14. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, United States Secretary of State:
“And that’s why we are going to do it.”
15. Zoom out, Lavrov and Kerry shaking hands / leaving the room
The US Secretary of State and his Russian counterpart hailed tonight’s Security Council resolution on Syria as the start of a peaceful process to end the five year conflict, but stressed that some unresolved “issues” still remained.
In its first resolution to focus on the politics of ending Syria’s war, the Security Council today (18 Dec) gave the United Nations an enhanced role in shepherding the opposing sides to talks for a political transition, with a timetable for a ceasefire, a new constitution and elections, all under UN auspices.
“What we’ve achieved today is to pass a resolution in the United Nations Security Council for the first time, since this war started, that embraces a road map we are actually trying to end it; a road map where we try to bring out it, a peaceful resolution through the political process, obviously,” John Kerry told reporters in New York.
Meeting at Foreign Minister level, the Council asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to convene Government and opposition representatives in formal negotiations early next month on a political transition as a step to lasting peace, in line with the 2012 Geneva Communiqué and consistent with the 14 November 2015 International Syria Support Group (ISSG) on the issue.
The resolution was adopted unanimously after Ban briefed the 15-member body on his meeting earlier in the day with the International Syria Support Group, comprised of the Arab League, the European Union, the United Nations, and 17 countries, including the United States and Russia, which has been seeking a path forward for several months.
“We begin with a clarity about the steps that need to be taken. We also have a time frame that the transitional process needs to try to be achieved within the target time of 6 months. In addition, the election needs to take place within 18 months, same starting time. So after 9-6 months of the transition we are about a year away, hopefully, or less, from the election. It also embraced a ceasefire. A ceasefire is critical to the capacity of the parties to come together and be able to negotiate and to begin to deal with the problem of refugees, displaced people, the humanitarian crisis of Syria,” Kerry added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, appeared to be more cautious saying that he was not “too optimistic about what it has been achieved today but a very important step has been made to create the requisite external conditions for Syrian to be able to do, what we all expect them to do, and that is to agreeing on the issues that will determine the future of their country.”
With regards to the fate of Syrian President Assad, Lavrov said “only the Syrian people are going to decide their own future certainly, and that also covers the future of the Syrian president, and that’s our deep conviction.”
Shortly before concluding the press briefing Kerry said some issues still needed to be worked through.
“One of them is the percentage of the Russian strikes that are actually going after the opposition versus Daesh, and so we are trying to work on that. But if 80 percent are hitting opposition rather than hitting Daesh, it’s a challenge and we are trying to resolve that so that we cooperate. I don’t say this as a division I say this as a difference of how [intelligible] we may better cooperate and those are the things that we are trying to work through and I am confident that we will. I agree with Sergey completely, the objective is and it would be if we were frozen into inaction, but we have been obviously doing an extraordinary amount against Daesh and we now have Special Forces committed to that fight and other assets. So I don’t think anybody doubts our commitment to the effort to destroy Daesh,” Kerry said.
Lavrov responded by saying “I can only confirm that with regards to the question regarding our strikes the proposal to coordinate on this remains on the table for the two and half-month time.”
“And that’s why we are going to do it,” said Kerry.
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