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UN / SYRIA WRAP
STORY: UN / SYRIA WRAP
TRT: 5:31
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / RUSSIAN
DATELINE: 20 SEPTEMBER 2016, NEW YORK CITY
20 SEPTEMBER 2016, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UNHQ exterior
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. UPSOUND (English) Staffan de Mistura, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria:
“I know it looks like a dream when you look at me Mr President, but that’s the plan, and if we don’t do that it won’t be possible to get there.”
4. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister, Russian Federation:
“I am sure, I don’t have any proof, but I’m sure that these kinds of coincidences require serious analysis and investigation, and we insist on a very thorough and impartial investigation of the attack on the humanitarian convoy. Many said that it could have been a rocket or an artillery shell, that was what the initial reports were, then helicopters or war planes were mentioned. So I think we need to refrain from emotional reactions and making public comments immediately, but first investigate and be very professional.”
5. Wide shot, Security Council
6. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister, Russian Federation:
“There won’t be any unilateral pauses. We’ve done this already. There were unilateral pauses around Aleppo for 48 hours, 72 hours, and each time the result was that the insurgents, including Jabhat Al Nusra, were provided with reinforcements and military equipment. They use these pauses to only strengthen themselves. So now we can’t even discuss unilateral measures.”
7. Med shot, Syrian ambassador
8. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister, Russian Federation:
“The UN special envoy should not accept this kind of blackmail. Negotiations should resume and those who insist on preconditions should be told that these demands are counter to the demands of this body, the Security Council of the United Nations.”
9. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, Secretary of State, United States:
(starts under cutaway)“How can people go sit at a table with a regime that bombs hospitals and drops Chlorine gas again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again; and acts with impunity? Are you supposed to sit there and have happy talk in Geneva under those circumstances when you’ve signed up to a ceasefire and you don’t adhere to it? What kind of credibility do you have with any of your people? It’s not a precondition. It’s something we all agreed on in the United Nations and in the International Syria Support Group.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, Secretary of State, United States:
“We did, a terrible accident, and within moments of it happening we acknowledged it. We didn’t put out a bunch of obfuscating facts, we said ‘yeah, it’s a terrible thing; it happened.’ The defence department apologized and we will try to find out how that happened. But I have to tell you, people running around with guns on the ground from the air is a very different thing from trucks in a convoy with big UN markings all over them.”
12. Pan right, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, Secretary of State, United States:
“The trucks and the food and the medicine just spontaneously combusted. Anybody here believe that? I mean this is not a joke. We are in serious business here. If we can stand up and say yes accidentally we had a strike, we should have some responsibility.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, Secretary of State, United States:
“I believe that to restore credibility to the process, we must move forward to try to immediately ground all aircraft flying in those key areas, in order to de-escalate the situation and give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded. And if that happens, there is a chance to give credibility back to this process.”
16. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bashar Ja’afari, Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations:
“The American military aggression in the east of our country, the Turkish military aggression in the north of our country, and the Israeli military aggression in the south of our country, clearly and undoubtedly means the transition from the phase of proxy aggression to the phase of direct aggression.”
17. Wide shot, Security Council
18. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bashar Ja’afari, Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations:
“The American reconnaissance airplanes and spy satellites, and the so-called international coalition’s intelligence services, were confused between Da’esh (ISIL) and those fighting Da’esh and this is not strange for them. They failed for many years to observe the thousands of foreign terrorist fighters which were brought into Syria and Iraq for all over the world.”
19. Wide shot, French Foreign minister walking to stakeout position
20. SOUNDBITE (French) Jean-Marc Ayrault, Foreign Minister, France:
“The third proposition was the adoption of a Security Council resolution under Chapter VII condemning the use of chemical weapons. The crimes must not remain unpunished.”
RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
21. Wide shot, United Nations flag
United States (US) Secretary of State John Kerry said to restore credibility to the ceasefire in Syria, “we must move forward to try to immediately ground all aircraft flying in those key areas.”
Speaking today (21 Sep) at a high-level Security Council meeting on the crisis in the country Kerry said coalition planes did “a terrible accident” in bombing Syrian troops, but “people running around with guns on the ground from the air is a very different thing from trucks in a convoy with big UN markings all over them.” He listed several statements made by Russian officials on the incident in which the aid convoy in Aleppo was attacked and claimed that the “damage to the convoy was a direct result of the cargo catching fire” denying Russian or Syrian involvement. Kerry said if the US could say “yes accidentally we had a strike” there should be some responsibility on the issue.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the area where the convoy was attacked was under the control of the opposition and on that same day Al Nusra and its allies had attacked government forces. He said he was “sure that these kinds of coincidences require serious analysis and investigation.” He said, “We need to refrain from emotional reactions and making public comments immediately, but first investigate and be very professional.”
Lavrov said there wouldn’t be any “unilateral pauses” by the Syrian government as this was used by “insurgents, including Jabhat Al Nusra” to receive reinforcements and military equipment. He called on the United Nations (UN) Special Envoy Staffan de Mistrua to reject “blackmail” and “precondition” and resume negotiations.
Kerry responded by saying a ceasefire in Syria was “not a precondition” to political negotiations rather it was a an international agreement. He asked, “How can people go sit a t a table with a regime that bombs hospitals and drops Chlorine gas again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again; and acts with impunity?” He said “to restore credibility to the process, we must move forward to try to immediately ground all aircraft flying in those key areas, in order to de-escalate the situation and give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded. And if that happens, there is a chance to give credibility back to this process.”
Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said when the US “unilaterally” decided to intervene militarily in his country it vowed not to target Syrian troops. He said the coalition strike “intentionally” gave way for Da’esh to enter the base. He said, “The American reconnaissance airplanes and spy satellites, and the so-called international coalition’s intelligence services, were confused between Da’esh (ISIL) and those fighting Da’esh and this is not strange for them. They failed for many years to observe the thousands of foreign terrorist fighters which were brought into Syria and Iraq for all over the world.”
Jaffari said American, Turkish and Israeli “military aggression” in his country “clearly and undoubtedly means the transition from the phase of proxy aggression to the phase of direct aggression.”
Earlier, UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura said the conflict in Syria could not be resolved militarily rather through a “Syrian-owned and Syrian-led political negotiating process between the government and the opposition.” He said any viable transition must inevitably “require the creation of collective transitional bodies to oversee a national ceasefire, humanitarian relief and the creation of a calm, neutral environment to enable free peaceful political activity to occur in relation to the adoption of a new constitution and the holding of free and fair elections under international supervision.” He said he knew this “looks like a dream.”
Speaking outside the Security Council, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters he proposed to member states a new mechanism to monitor the US-Russia brokered truce in Syria. He also said his government proposed “the adoption of a Security Council resolution under Chapter VII condemning the use of chemical weapons. The crimes must not remain unpunished.”
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