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GENEVA / DE MISTURA PRESSER
STORY: GENEVA / DE MISTURA PRESSER
TRT: 1:53
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE:22 FEBRUARY 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, Press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English): Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria:
“Am I expecting a breakthrough? No, I’m not expecting a breakthrough. But I am expecting and determined for keeping a very proactive momentum. We have to…There is a run, a rush between us and the spoilers, the spoilers want to keep a momentum; we have to outpace those few but clear spoilers with the momentum on the political track, and I think we can aim at that. ”
4. Wide shot, press room
5. SOUNDBITE (English): Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria:
“Tomorrow morning we will be having bilateral meetings with those who have been coming, either today, this afternoon this evening or tomorrow morning, and in the afternoon I plan to have a first opportunity to give and express my welcome to them, hopefully also in the presence of the International Support Group, in order to show that the international community is interested, supportive, united as much as we can hope, in order to tell to the Syrian side that it is time to fight on the table, through the table, but not in the field.”
6. Med shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English): Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria:
“But just because we do have a ceasefire, we need to keep the momentum. We are not having – second point or the bottom line – any excessive expectations, let’s be frank, but clearly we are determined to give the Syrians another chance for addressing the political process that they claim they all want to address.”
8. Wide shot, journalists
On the eve of the fourth round of Intra-Syrian Negotiations in Geneva, the UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura stressed the need to “outpace” those who wished to see the initiative come to nothing.
Downplaying expectations of an immediate “breakthrough” between the warring sides, de Mistura said that it was time for delegations to show that it is time to “fight on the (negotiating) table, not in the field”.
To date, the near six-year war in Syria has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions.
De Mistura said that he would be continuing to push for a resolution to the conflict based on UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which calls for non-sectarian governance in the war-ravaged country, a new constitution and free and fair elections.
The veteran negotiator said that the Russian Federation announced earlier in the day that it had asked the Syrian government - which it backs - to “silence their own skies” for the duration of the negotiations.
And he said that he had asked the same of the opposition forces coming to Geneva, to give them the best chance of success.
Comparing the situation now to a year ago, Mr de Mistura said that much had changed, not least the fact that US involvement in a ceasefire agreement had given way to the Astana grouping of Turkey, Iran and Russia.
Referring to Astana as “a very positive initiative” the Special Envoy highlighted its value in enforcing the fragile ceasefire in Syria, which meant that the UN could bring its experience to bear on political negotiations.
He also noted how the Astana members might provide possible help in ensuring aid access reached besieged areas, before pointing out that roadblocks were still preventing humanitarian convoys from reaching vulnerable communities inside the war-torn country.
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