GENEVA / SYRIAN DELEGATION TALKS WRAP

The UN Special Envoy Staffan De Mistura told reporters in Geneva “what we need here is a common understanding. That is exactly what negotiations are all about.” UNTV CH

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:10
• Production Date: 21 March 2016
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: BASHAR JAAFARI; STAFFAN DE MISTURA
• Subject Topical: PEACE PROCESS
• MAMS Id: 1587593
• Parent Id: 1587593
• Alternate Title: unifeed160321a

Description

STORY: GENEVA / SYRIAN DELEGATION TALKS WRAP
TRT: 02:10
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 21 MARCH 2016, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND /FILE

Shotlist

RECENT - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Exterior, Palais des Nations

21 MARCH 2016, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Various shots, Syrian government delegation arriving at Press Stakeout
3. Various shots, meeting
4. Wide shot, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria:
“They are right, they didn’t, because their paper has been shared with the opposition, but at the end of the day if we start having an exchange of papers we would just have a public exchange of papers. What we need here is a common understanding that is exactly what negotiations are all about”.
6. Med shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria:
“The government has its own very elaborate analysis of its own concept of terrorism. We have a very simple one. As far as the UN is concerned it is what is applicable and has been applied so far into the cessation of hostilities agreement. Those organisations which are listed by the Security Council as terrorists are terrorists. The rest is a personal opinion or a government opinion but not the UN opinion.”
12. Wide shot, journalists
13. Zoom out, Staffan de Mistura leaving

Storyline

Peace talks in Geneva to end the five year war in Syria entered their second week on Monday.

After the meeting UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura addressed the press, and responded to the Syrian government's chief negotiator Bashar Jaafari’s contention that they were not getting responses to their written proposal on the principles for the political process -- and supposedly stalling the negotiations.

De Mistura said “they are right, they didn’t, because their paper has been shared with the opposition, but at the end of the day if we start having an exchange of papers we would just have a public exchange of papers. What we need here is a common understanding that is exactly what negotiations are all about.”

De Mistura explained again that the Syrian opposition will provide some ideas and then based on those he could see to “whether there is some common ground for negotiations.”

The Special Envoy insisted again that the only groups that could be defined as being of terrorists, for the purposes of these UN-sponsored talks, were those explicitly listed as terrorist groups by the UN Security Council. He said “the rest is a personal opinion or a government opinion but not the UN opinion.”

De Mistura also expressed his concern that while “the cessation of hostilities is still holding, by and enlarge holding, and as well movement on humanitarian aid” might not be sustained if “we cannot process on the political side.”
The current round of ongoing negotiations will be paused on Thursday and are expected to resume in early April.