UN / SYRIA CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Five years after resolution 2118, which called on member states to implement a programme to eliminate the use chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict was adopted, High Representative on Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said, “so long as the use of chemical weapons is ongoing, or the threat of their use lingers, we must retain our focus on this issue and not allow ourselves to become inured to it.” UNIFEED

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:01
• Production Date: 5 November 2018
• Asset Language: Arabic; English
• Personal Subject: BASHAR JAAFARI; IZUMI NAKAMITSU
• Corporate Name: ORGANISATION FOR THE PROHIBITION OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS - OPCW; SECURITY COUNCIL
• Subject Topical: CHEMICAL WEAPONS; CONFLICT SITUATION
• Geographic Subject: SYRIA
• MAMS Id: 2300982
• Parent Id: 2300982
• Alternate Title: unifeed181105b

Description

STORY: UN / SYRIA CHEMICAL WEAPONS
TRT: 02:01
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS

DATELINE: 05 NOVEMBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

Shotlist

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

05 NOVEMBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative on Disarmament Affairs:
“So long as the use of chemical weapons is ongoing, or the threat of their use lingers, we must retain our focus on this issue and not allow ourselves to become inured to it. Unity in the Security Council is required if we are-collectively-to re-establish the norm against chemical weapons.”
4. Med shot, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative on Disarmament Affairs:
“The use of these weapons must always be seen as a violation of a deeply-held taboo.
Accordingly, the identification and accountability of those responsible is imperative.”
6. Med shot, Syrian Ambassador
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative on Disarmament Affairs:
“I note that allegations regarding a possible planned use of chemical weapons in Idlib are continuing to surface. The Secretary-General has made clear his concern regarding the continued use of chemical weapons, as well as regarding the risks of a humanitarian catastrophe in the event of a full-scale military operation in Idlib province. He has called upon all parties to exercise restraint.”
8. Med shot, delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bashar Ja'afari, Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations:
“Here we reiterate that the Syrian Army has never used chemical weapons and it no longer possess those weapons in the first place. This was reported to you by Madame Sigrid Kaag years ago. I remind you that that the Syrian chemical weapons stockpile was completely destroyed on board the American vessel MV Cape Ray in the Mediterranean Sea. Madame Sigrid Kaag attested to this in the report she submitted to the august Council in June 2014.”
10. Wide shot, Council

Storyline

Five years after resolution 2118, which called on member states to implement a programme to eliminate the use chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict was adopted, High Representative on Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said, “so long as the use of chemical weapons is ongoing, or the threat of their use lingers, we must retain our focus on this issue and not allow ourselves to become inured to it.”

Izumi said the use of these weapons “must always be seen as a violation of a deeply-held taboo,” and stressing that “unity in the UN Security Council is required,” she noted that “the identification and accountability of those responsible is imperative”.

The High Representative referred to “allegations regarding a possible planned use of chemical weapons in Idlib” – the last area of the country under rebel control where millions of civilians are sheltering – which are “continuing to surface.”

She said “the Secretary-General has made clear his concern regarding the continued use of chemical weapons, as well as regarding the risks of a humanitarian catastrophe in the event of a full-scale military operation in Idlib province. He has called upon all parties to exercise restraint.”

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told the Council that the Syrian Army” has never used chemical weapons and it no longer possess those weapons in the first place.”

He recalled that the Syrian chemical weapons stockpile “was completely destroyed on board the American vessel MV Cape Ray in the Mediterranean Sea.”

He added that Sigrid Kaag, who at the time was the Special Coordinator of the Joint Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations (OPCW-UN) on the chemical weapons programme of the Syrian Arab Republic, “attested to this in the report she submitted to the august Council in June 2014.”

In more than seven years of brutal civil conflict, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN, through a Joint Investigative Mechanism, found evidence of multiple instances where chemical weapons – including sulfur mustard and sarin – were used by the Syrian Government forces as well as non-state armed groups.