7785th Security Council Meeting: Situation in Syria

Two draft texts - one from France and Spain, and the other from the Russian Federation - addressing the conflict in Syria failed to be adopted by the Security Council at 7785th meeting.

• Categories: Meetings & Events / Security Council
• Video Length: 02:13:43
• Production Date: 8 October 2016
• Asset Language: Arabic; Chinese; English; French; Russian; Spanish
• Personal Subject: VITALY I. CHURKIN; MATTHEW RYCROFT
• Subject Topical: HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; HUMANITARIAN CRISIS; CIVILIAN PROTECTION; CEASEFIRES; TERRORISM; CONFLICT SITUATION
• Geographic Subject: SYRIA
• MAMS Id: 1733298
• Parent Id: 1731962

Description

The French and Spanish text that would have had the Council demand an immediate halt to all aerial bombardments and military flights over the city of Aleppo received 11 affirmative votes, two abstentions (Angola and China), and two negative votes (Russian Federation and Venezuela).

The text would also have urged the immediate implementation of a cessation of hostilities as well as immediate, safe and unhindered humanitarian access throughout the country, and demanded that parties to the conflict — in particular the Syrian authorities — fully implement all previous Council resolutions.

The Russian Federation’s text, by which the Council would have urged an immediate cessation of hostilities, particularly in Aleppo, received a vote of 4 in favour (China, Egypt, Russian Federation, Venezuela) to 9 against (France, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States), with 2 abstentions (Angola and Uruguay).

That draft resolution would have demanded that all parties prevent material and financial support from reaching groups associated with Al-Qaida, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) or Jabhat al-Nusrah.

Introducing the first text, Jean-Marc Ayrault, Minister for Foreign Affairs of France, said that if nothing was done, Aleppo would go down in history as a city in ruins whose inhabitants had been abandoned to their executioners. Comparing Aleppo to Guernica, Sarajevo and Grozny, he said adoption of the text would give hope to Syrians. Rejection, on the other hand, would mean more deaths, more refugees and more displaced persons.

Spain’s representative warned that the worst situation in the conflict could still be ahead. He added that it was intolerable that the Syrian Government continued to block the delivery of humanitarian assistance through deliberate tactics, including the removal of medical assistance. He also noted how the draft text called for the investigation into the recent bombing of a United Nations aid convoy.

The representative of the Russian Federation, Council President for the month of October, presented his country’s draft resolution, stating that he knew that it would not get the required number of votes for adoption. However, he explained, that text was an attempt to maintain a multilateral approach to the issue. He added that very complicated work was continuing and that hopefully the situation in Syria would return to normal.

As Syria’s representative took the floor, the heads of several delegations exited the Security Council chamber, causing him to decry those countries’ diplomacy as one of chaos and use of force and not one of dialogue. He also voiced his regret that the Council had failed to adopt the Russian Federation’s draft resolution, saying that failure reaffirmed a lack of political will in combating terrorism and in reaching an intra-Syrian solution to the crisis. He added that he had not reflected on the Franco-Spanish draft as it was clear it had its own objectives.

Also speaking today were representatives of the United Kingdom, Malaysia, United States, New Zealand, Ukraine, Japan, Venezuela, Egypt, China, Uruguay and Angola.

The meeting began at 2:38 p.m. and ended at 4:51 p.m.