Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUnifeed
UN / SYRIA
STORY: UN / SYRIA
TRT: 4:18
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 29 JUNE 2022, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UN headquarters exterior
29 JUNE 2022, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria :
“With humanitarian needs growing and civilians in desperate need, it is essential for the Council to renew this framework for an additional twelve months. As the Secretary General has stated, this is a moral imperative. And, at a time of global turmoil, the Council’s unity on humanitarian issues in Syria would also signal that the main stakeholders in this conflict can firewall key aspects of the Syria issue from their differences elsewhere in the world, and cooperate.”
4. Close up, Security Council president
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria :
“To focus on a political way forward, it is vital that tensions and dangers of military escalation are contained. We are seeing ongoing and even increasing violence, in a number of flashpoints.”
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria :
“And let me note that there is a risk that a miscalculated move in any of these flashpoints could lead to a broader conflict in a volatile situation. As we have seen time and again, conflict can escalate fast in Syria. If it does, mass civilian displacement and suffering are sure to follow, with the potential for wider regional instability.”
8. Close up, Security Council president
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria :
“Let’s also not forget the acute economic crisis in Syria, resulting from more than a decade of war and conflict, corruption, mismanagement, the Lebanese financial crisis, COVID, sanctions and now the war in Ukraine. Earlier this month, the World Bank reported that Syrian economic activity halved in size between 2010 and 2019.”
10. Close up, Security Council president
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Omar Alshogre, Syrian Emergency Task Force:
“This is the first time, since I left Syria, that I face the people who supported the regime in killing my father, inm killing my oldest brother, in killing my youngest brother, in killing my childhood friends. When the soldiers came home to kill my family, my mom heard one of them speaking Farsi- as he was an Iranian officer sent to kill our hope for democracy. That’s when the people of Syria realized that they had more than one enemy. And they need more than one friend.”
12. Close up, Security Council president
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Omar Alshogre, Syrian Emergency Task Force:
“The reason I’ve been shaming you for the last 5 minutes, is because I know that you have some power to do so much but you choose not to. Here are three actions you can do to both prove to your own citizens that you care about human rights and to mitigate the suffereing of the Syrian people. First: pressure Russia, as much as you can, to extent Bab Al-Hawa and open all other cross-border points to allow humanitarian aid. This, technically, should not be a negotiation.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Omar Alshogre, Syrian Emergency Task Force:
“Second, follow Germany’s lead to use the massive amount of evidence to prosecute the Syrian regime and its allies. This step can help to slow down or prevent the normalization of the regime that is still insulting you, on a daily basis, by committing crimes against humanity and war crimes. Third, and this is perhaps the most difficult but the most important thing to do, fight with us.”
16. Wide shot, Security Council
The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, Geir Pedersen told the Security Council that “with humanitarian needs growing and civilians in desperate need, it is essential for the Council to renew” the resolution that allows the cross-border delivery of humanitarian aid for 12 months.
Addressing the Council on Wednesday (29 June), Pedersen recalled the words of the Secretary-General, saying the vote is “a moral imperative.”
According to the Special Envoy, “at a time of global turmoil, the Council’s unity on humanitarian issues in Syria would also signal that the main stakeholders in this conflict can firewall key aspects of the Syria issue from their differences elsewhere in the world, and cooperate.”
Pedersen also said that, “to focus on a political way forward, it is vital that tensions and dangers of military escalation are contained. We are seeing ongoing and even increasing violence, in a number of flashpoints.”
For the Special Envoy, “there is a risk that a miscalculated move in any of these flashpoints could lead to a broader conflict in a volatile situation.”
“As we have seen time and again, conflict can escalate fast in Syria. If it does, mass civilian displacement and suffering are sure to follow, with the potential for wider regional instability”, Pedersen added.
The envoy highlighted the “acute economic crisis” in the country, saying it is the result of “more than a decade of war and conflict, corruption, mismanagement, the Lebanese financial crisis, COVID, sanctions and now the war in Ukraine.”
He also noted that, earlier in June, the World Bank reported that Syrian economic activity halved in size between 2010 and 2019.
Representing the civil society, there was Omar Alshogre, a member of the Syrian Emergency Task Force.
“This is the first time, since I left Syria, that I face the people who supported the regime in killing my father, inm killing my oldest brother, in killing my youngest brother, in killing my childhood friends”, Alshogre started by saying.
“When the soldiers came home to kill my family, my mom heard one of them speaking Farsi- as he was an Iranian officer sent to kill our hope for democracy. That’s when the people of Syria realized that they had more than one enemy. And they need more than one friend”, he continued.
The human rights activist said he was “shaming” the Council members because they had power to change the situation, but chose not to, and pointed to three actions.
“First: pressure Russia, as much as you can, to extent Bab Al-Hawa and open all other cross-border points to allow humanitarian aid. This, technically, should not be a negotiation”, Alshogre said.
He then urged Council members to “follow Germany’s lead to use the massive amount of evidence to prosecute the Syrian regime and its allies”, arguing that this step could help to slow down or prevent the normalization of the regime”.
“Third, and this is perhaps the most difficult but the most important thing to do, fight with us”, the speaker concluded.
Download
There is no media available to download.
