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UN / GENERAL ASSEMBLY SYRIA VETO
STORY: UN / GENERAL ASSEMBLY SYRIA VETO
TRT: 04:59
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 19 JULY 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
19 JULY 2023, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Csaba Kőrösi, President, General Assembly:
“The Bab al-Hawa crossing with Türkiye has been used by the UN and aid agencies since 2014, and after the closing of the other three crossings by the Security Council in subsequent years, it has handled 85 per cent of UN aid deliveries. After Russia’s veto in the Council last week, UN aid convoys there have virtually stopped.”
4. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Csaba Kőrösi, President, General Assembly:
“The lives of those in need should never be reduced to the tactics of geopolitical games. I urge Security Council members to keep their needs foremost in your minds.”
6. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Csaba Kőrösi, President, General Assembly:
“To the Security Council, I call on you to be alive to the realities and oriented towards genuine solutions. To urgently prioritize long-term cooperation over division. And the humanitarian imperative over brinksmanship. Together, we have the power to make a meaningful difference. The people of Syria are counting on us to deliver.”
8. Close up, General Assembly President
9. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation:
“It must be noted that, just as it was the case a year ago, we were dealing with a conscious attempt by our western opponents to force us to use our veto rights. If they had wanted to, it would have been entirely possible to agree on a mutually acceptable text. However, our Swiss colleagues, who essentially monopolized the penholder-ship of the resolution, preferred a blatant blackmail to negotiations and diplomatic work. They arrogantly rejected the absolutely legitimate demands of Syria.”
10. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
11. SOUNBITE (English) Silvio Gonzato, Deputy Head of the European Union Delegation to the United Nations:
“The European Union deplores the second veto on this issue by the Russian Federation, on the renewal of Security Resolution 2672. This decision risks exacerbating the already dire humanitarian situation in northwest Syria and will gravely disrupt the delivery of life saving humanitarian supplies to meet those in need.”
12. Close up, General Assembly President
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Pascale Baeriswyl, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Switzerland:
“Millions of people in northwestern Syria currently depend on it following the expiry of the Security Council's authorization, the uncertainty in which these people live is great. It is therefore crucial that we continue to do all we can to ensure that aid continues to reach those in need, without discrimination and for as long as necessary.”
14. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey DeLaurentis, Senior Advisor for UN Security Council Affairs, United States:
“Humanitarian aid must never be used as a bargaining chip, cannot be conditions based. We must stand up and denounce these tactics, especially when they are implemented under the cover of a veto by a permanent member of the Security Council. A permanent member that has time and time again, weaponized food. The international community must come together and speak out against Russia's cynical politicization of this purely humanitarian issue.”
16. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
17. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bassam Sabbagh, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Syrian Arab Republic:
“Time after time, it feels that some exploit this resolution in a politicized way that does not serve the goals envisaged by it. What we witnessed during today's discussion suggests that there is an effort by some to turn this session into a session to make false accusations against the Russian Federation and the platform to launch an attack on it for political reasons that have nothing to do with the topic of the discussion.”
18. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
Following last week’s Security Council failure to reauthorize the Syria cross-border humanitarian aid delivery mechanism, the General Assembly held today (19 July) a debate about the vote.
On 11 July, Russia vetoed the Security Council resolution that would have allowed a nine-month renewal of the aid operation in north-west Syria and failed to pass its own resolution that would extend the operation for six months.
According to the GA resolution A/76/62 the President of the General Assembly has to convene a formal meeting within 10 working days of the casting of a veto by one or more permanent members of the Council.
Opening the debate, the President of the General Assembly, Csaba Kőrösi, noted that “the Bab al-Hawa crossing with Türkiye has been used by the UN and aid agencies since 2014, and after the closing of the other three crossings by the Security Council in subsequent years, it has handled 85 per cent of UN aid deliveries.”
Kőrösi added, “After Russia’s veto in the Council last week, UN aid convoys there have virtually stopped.”
Saying that “the lives of those in need should never be reduced to the tactics of geopolitical games”, the President of the General Assembly urged the “Security Council members to keep their needs foremost in your minds.”
Kőrösi said, “To the Security Council, I call on you to be alive to the realities and oriented towards genuine solutions. To urgently prioritize long-term cooperation over division. And the humanitarian imperative over brinksmanship. Together, we have the power to make a meaningful difference. The people of Syria are counting on us to deliver.”
The First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said, “It must be noted that, just as it was the case a year ago, we were dealing with a conscious attempt by our western opponents to force us to use our veto rights. If they had wanted to, it would have been entirely possible to agree on a mutually acceptable text.”
Polyanskiy also said that Switzerland had “essentially monopolized the penholder-ship of the resolution” and “preferred a blatant blackmail to negotiations and diplomatic work”. They also had, the diplomat said, “arrogantly rejected the absolutely legitimate demands of Syria.”
The Deputy Head of the European Union Delegation to the UN, Silvio Gonzato, said the EU “deplores” the veto and noted that “this decision risks exacerbating the already dire humanitarian situation in northwest Syria and will gravely disrupt the delivery of life saving humanitarian supplies to meet those in need.”
The Permanent Representative of Switzerland, the country who acts as penholder of this dossier together with Brazil, said that “millions of people in northwestern Syria currently depend on it following the expiry of the Security Council's authorization, the uncertainty in which these people live is great.”
According to Pascale Baeriswyl, “it is therefore crucial that we continue to do all we can to ensure that aid continues to reach those in need, without discrimination and for as long as necessary.”
The United States’ Senior Advisor for UN Security Council Affairs, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, said that “humanitarian aid must never be used as a bargaining chip, cannot be conditions based.”
DeLaurentis added, “We must stand up and denounce these tactics, especially when they are implemented under the cover of a veto by a permanent member of the Security Council. A permanent member that has time and time again, weaponized food. The international community must come together and speak out against Russia's cynical politicization of this purely humanitarian issue.”
The Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic, Bassam Sabbagh, said that “time after time, it feels that some exploit this resolution in a politicized way that does not serve the goals envisaged by it.”
Sabbagh continued, “What we witnessed during today's discussion suggests that there is an effort by some to turn this session into a session to make false accusations against the Russian Federation and the platform to launch an attack on it for political reasons that have nothing to do with the topic of the discussion.”
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