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UN / SYRIA
STORY: UN / SYRIA
TRT: 03:14
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / CHINESE / ARABIC / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 19 DECEMBER 2017, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
19 DECEMBER 2017, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Staffan de Mistura, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“The opportunity to begin a real discussion or negotiation was not seized. A golden opportunity was missed.”
4. Med shot, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Staffan de Mistura, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“Let us recall that only a UN brokered process will be seen by the Syrians as impartial and will attract a regional and international legitimacy required. That is why you in this Council, have mandated the UN to facilitate the political process.”
6. Med shot, Russian delegation
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Andrew Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs:
“In besieged Eastern Ghouta, increased fighting and lack of humanitarian access is rendering life unbearable for an estimated 393,000 people trapped inside the enclave. Thousands of civilians are caught in fighting that threatens their lives on a daily basis. Except for a pause of two days, intensive air and ground based strikes have been reported every day since mid-November. There has been significant loss of civilian life and hundreds have been wounded, both in Eastern Ghouta and in Damascus City where shelling from the besieged enclave has continued.”
8. Med shot, de Mistura
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Andrew Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs:
“So far in December, none, none of our convoys have made it to any of the besieged locations. Only two convoys received the necessary authorizations for deployment to hard to reach locations.”
10. Med shot, delegates
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mounzer Mounzer, Minister Counsellor Deputy Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations:
“The Syrian Arab Republic has participated in 15 cycles of negotiations in Geneva and in Astana and in two cycles of negotiations in Moscow. It also aspires to participate in an effective manner in the conference for national dialogue in Sochi. The position of my government is clear and nobody can deny that we are ready to continue our efforts to end the bloodbath in Syria and to meet the aspirations of the Syrian people.”
12. Wide shot, Council
13. Various shots, Security Council vote
14. Wide shot, delegates
15. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vladimir Safronkov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
“At this stage, we are not going to impede the latest rollover of the cross-border regime, being guided first and foremost by the interest of those Syrians who are in need of assistance. But we also are unable to support the text as proposed because not all of our priorities are considered in this text.”
16. Med shot, Lowcock
17. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) WU Haitao, Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations:
“We believe there is still room for the draft to improve. Parties in the Council should have been allowed more time to carry out consultations in order to reach a consensus. Under such a circumstance, China had to abstain.”
18. Wide shot, Council
The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, today (19 Dec) told the Security Council that “the opportunity to begin a real discussion or negotiation was not seized” at the latest round of intra-Syrian talks in Geneva, and “a golden opportunity was missed.”
De Mistura stressed that “only a UN brokered process will be seen by the Syrians as impartial and will attract a regional and international legitimacy required.”
In his briefing to the Council, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock reported that in besieged Eastern Ghouta, “increased fighting and lack of humanitarian access is rendering life unbearable for an estimated 393,000 people trapped inside the enclave.”
He said, “thousands of civilians are caught in fighting that threatens their lives on a daily basis” and noted that “there has been significant loss of civilian life and hundreds have been wounded, both in Eastern Ghouta and in Damascus City where shelling from the besieged enclave has continued.”
Lowcock said that “so far in December, none, none of our convoys have made it to any of the besieged locations. Only two convoys received the necessary authorizations for deployment to hard to reach locations.”
Syrian Ambassador Mounzer Mounzer said his government “has participated in 15 cycles of negotiations in Geneva and in Astana and in two cycles of negotiations in Moscow” and added that “nobody can deny that we are ready to continue our efforts to end the bloodbath in Syria and to meet the aspirations of the Syrian people.”
Earlier in the day, the Council voted to extend a resolution allowing cross-border aid to hard to reach locations in Syria.
China and the Russian Federation abstained.
Russian Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov, said his delegation was “not going to impede the latest rollover of the cross-border regime, being guided first and foremost by the interest of those Syrians who are in need of assistance. But we also are unable to support the text as proposed because not all of our priorities are considered in this text.”
For his part, China’s Ambassador WU Haitao said “we believe there is still room for the draft to improve. Parties in the Council should have been allowed more time to carry out consultations in order to reach a consensus. Under such a circumstance, China had to abstain.”
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