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UN / UNRWA WRAP
STORY: UN / UNRWA WRAP
TRT: 4:13
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 27 SEPTEMBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY
27 SEPTEMBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UNHQ exterior
2. Med shot, Mogherini walking in hall
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Federica Mogherini, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, European Union:
“The European Union had the honour to announce today that we will add 40 million Euros to our financing to UNRWA on top of the funding that we are already providing. The European Union Member States are providing already half of the budget on UNRWA. We will continue to invest in that because we think this is a key, not only humanitarian duty, but also investment for the two-state solution. This is what I wanted to announce today. We are also working in the ad hoc liaison committee right now, together with our partners starting from Norway, to keep the two-state solution alive; 25 years after the Oslo agreement was signed here in the White House. We have to avoid that this prospective fades away, or rather is dismantled piece by piece, because if you seriously think of any alternative, you realize that there is no alternative. Unless you believe that one state for all those that are living in the territory could be a solution, but I gather this would not be a solution acceptable nor for the Palestinians neither for the Israelis.”
4. Wide shot, Mogherini speaking to officials in hall
5. Wide shot, press room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“An additional 118 million USD is a very significant step in the direction of overcoming UNRWA’s greatest and gravest financial crisis ever. As we entered the meeting today, we were still looking for 186 million USD, in other words the remaining shortfall after this meeting has come down from the level we had at the beginning of the year, 446 million; we are now down to 68 million USD that remain to close this exercise. That is a remarkable result.”
7. Wide shot, Krähenbühl and Safadi at dais
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“Certainly, the decision by the United States to reduce its contribution this year by 300 million USD put us in a context that was simply unprecedented. So, we have to make sure that we would manage to overcome this year’s shortfall. We are, with today’s result, on a very good track and a very good path. And of course, we are now going to look to stabilizing the levels of contributions that we receive this year in addition, thinking about engaging in more multilateral agreements of funding, longer-term commitments.”
9. Wide shot, journalists
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ayman Safadi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Jordan:
“We’re heartened by the expression of commitment that we saw today, both in terms of support for the political role and the humanitarian role of UNRWA, but also in terms of the extra funding that our dear friends and colleagues have made. Today we are happy, Pierre and I, to announce that an extra funding of about 118 million USD was announced today by a number of our friends within that meeting.”
11. Wide shot, journalists
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Ayman Safadi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Jordan:
“What we discussed today is a way in which we can have long term financial planning, so not every year in August Palestinian kids will be wonder whether they have a school to go to or not, whether patients will have a clinic to receive treatment or not.”
13. Wide shots, journalists
14. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ayman Safadi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Jordan:
“The cause of UNRWA is a humanitarian one but also a political cause. UNRWA is not only based on the need for the international community to uphold its legal, humanitarian, and political responsibilities towards five million refugees to provide them with their needs. It is also an expression and assertion that the refugee issue is one of the final status issues and must be dealt with in accordance with the decisions of international legitimacy and based on these decisions, including resolution 194 and the Arab Peace Initiative, which guarantee the right of return and reparation.”
15. Wide shot, press room
The European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, today announced an additional contribution of 40 million Euros from the EU to the Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA).
Mogherini said the EU is “providing already half of the budget on UNRWA” and “will continue to invest in that because we think this is a key, not only humanitarian duty, but also investment for the two-state solution.”
She also told reporters that the ad hoc liaison committee, together with partners, are working “to keep the two-state solution alive,” adding that “we have to avoid that this prospective fades away, or rather is dismantled piece by piece, because if you seriously think of any alternative, you realize that there is no alternative.”
Earlier this afternoon, UNRWA Chief, Pierre Krähenbühl, said that an additional 118 million USD in commitments announced today, are “a very significant step in the direction of overcoming UNRWA’s greatest and gravest financial crisis ever.”
He said, “as we entered the meeting today, we were still looking for 186 million USD, in other words the remaining shortfall after this meeting has come down from the level we had at the beginning of the year, 446 million; we are now down to 68 million USD that remain to close this exercise. That is a remarkable result.”
Krähenbühl said, “certainly the decision by the United States to reduce its contribution this year by 300 million USD put us in a context that was simply unprecedented. So, we have to make sure that we would manage to overcome this year’s shortfall,” and added that “we are now going to look to stabilizing the levels of contributions that we receive this year in addition, thinking about engaging in more multilateral agreements of funding, longer-term commitments.”
Also speaking to reporters, the Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, said “we’re heartened by the expression of commitment that we saw today, both in terms of support for the political role and the humanitarian role of UNRWA, but also in terms of the extra funding that our dear friends and colleagues have made.”
Safadi said, “what we discussed today is a way in which we can have long term financial planning, so not every year in August Palestinian kids will be wonder whether they have a school to go to or not, whether patients will have a clinic to receive treatment or not.”
Safadi also said, “the cause of UNRWA is a humanitarian one but also a political cause” as it is “an expression and assertion that the refugee issue is one of the final status issues and must be dealt with in accordance with the decisions of international legitimacy and based on these decisions, including resolution 194 and the Arab Peace Initiative, which guarantee the right of return and reparation.”
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