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UN / SYRIA POLITICAL HUMANITARIAN
STORY: UN / SYRIA POLITICAL HUMANITARIAN
TRT: 05:38
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 21 DECEMBER 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1.Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
21 DECEMBER 2023, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria: “2023 has been another very difficult year for Syria. A year that saw devastating earthquakes, humanitarian needs reaching new highs, the economy plummeting to new lows, and the worst violence in three years. The year also saw new diplomatic openings, but did not lead to tangible changes on the ground for the lives of Syrians. In short: this has been another tragic year for Syrian civilians, who were killed, injured, displaced, detained and abducted in alarming numbers, and who saw no tangible moves towards a better future. Instead, on top of everything else, Syrians now face the danger of regional spillover adding further fuel to the fire.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria:
“There is an urgent need for maximum restraint by all actors, Syrians and non-Syrians. No-one should delude themselves that this worrying new-normal of ongoing escalation is in any way sustainable. Any major escalation would have devastating consequences in a deeply fragile situation, where de facto authorities and the presence and actions of foreign armies are key features of the landscape.”
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria:
“The year ahead needs to see a new momentum injected into the search for compromise for a political path forward. I appeal for all to act in a manner that enables the Constitutional Committee to resume, at least initially in Geneva, and for reciprocal, verifiable, parallel CBMs to be agreed and implemented. Equally, I remind you all that these entry points cannot in themselves resolve the conflict. We must look to engage across a comprehensive set of issues of concern to relevant parties, with new energy and new thinking, and lay the ground for a realistic and comprehensive multilateral approach inclusive of all actors and all the issues at the heart of the conflict.”
8. Med shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Doughten, Director, Humanitarian Financing and Resource Mobilization Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“In Syria, the earthquakes hit when needs were already at their highest level since the start of the conflict. They affected close to 9 million people across the country and killed at least 5,900. Millions were displaced, and countless essential service facilities were damaged or destroyed. The United Nations and our humanitarian partners responded immediately following the earthquakes.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Doughten, Director, Humanitarian Financing and Resource Mobilization Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“2023 sadly saw hostilities in northern Syria return to levels not seen since 2019. Since August, the fighting in north-west and north-east Syria has killed or injured hundreds of civilians. It has forced tens of thousands of people to endure – and many of them, in fact, to relive – the trauma of displacement. The hostilities have caused yet further damage to civilian facilities, including critical infrastructure, depriving millions of people of access to electricity, safe water, education and essential health services.”
12. Med shot, Security Council
13. Lisa Doughten, Director, Humanitarian Financing and Resource Mobilization Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“With deep sadness, our preliminary assessments forecast further declines in food security in 2024, including a 29 percent increase in severe food insecurity rates among displaced people living in camps and informal sites. In this context, the consequences of funding shortfalls for food assistance will be devastating. Mr. President, the situation is unsustainable and insupportable.”
14. Med shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“There are increasing flights of the Israeli Air Force targeting Syrian objects first and foremost the airports in Damascus and Aleppo, which are used as the main gateways for the introduction into Syria of UN humanitarian assistance as well as the heightened hostilities, an exchange of strikes on the Blue line between Lebanon and Israel. Carry a fraught with risks of dragging Syria into a full regional confliction.”
16. Med shot, Security Council
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Wood, Alternative Representative for Special Political Affairs, United States Mission to the United Nations:
“We join the majority of UN member states in reiterating the call for the Syrian regime to immediately release all those arbitrarily held and to provide information about the 10s of 1000s were missing. We were alarmed by the reports that violence has reached its worst level since 2019.”
18. Med shot, Security Council
19. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Alhakam Dandy, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Syrian Arab Republic:
“The US and the EU continue to impose unilateral inhumane sanctions that have significant impact on the enjoyment of the most basic human rights by Syrians, including children, women and the elderly, as they are denied food, medical care, electricity, housing and essential services.”
20. Wide shot, Security Council
The UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said, “this has been another tragic year for Syrian civilians, who were killed, injured, displaced, detained and abducted in alarming numbers, and who saw no tangible moves towards a better future.”
Briefing the Security Council today (21 Dec) on the situation in Syria, Pedersen noted, “2023 has been another very difficult year for Syria. A year that saw devastating earthquakes, humanitarian needs reaching new highs, the economy plummeting to new lows, and the worst violence in three years. The year also saw new diplomatic openings, but did not lead to tangible changes on the ground for the lives of Syrians.”
He added, “Instead, on top of everything else, Syrians now face the danger of regional spillover adding further fuel to the fire.”
Pedersen continued, “there is an urgent need for maximum restraint by all actors, Syrians and non-Syrians. No-one should delude themselves that this worrying new-normal of ongoing escalation is in any way sustainable.”
He said, “any major escalation would have devastating consequences in a deeply fragile situation, where de facto authorities and the presence and actions of foreign armies are key features of the landscape.”
The Special Envoy also said, “the year ahead needs to see a new momentum injected into the search for compromise for a political path forward. I appeal for all to act in a manner that enables the Constitutional Committee to resume, at least initially in Geneva, and for reciprocal, verifiable, parallel CBMs to be agreed and implemented.”
Pedersen said, “equally, I remind you all that these entry points cannot in themselves resolve the conflict.”
He stated, “we must look to engage across a comprehensive set of issues of concern to relevant parties, with new energy and new thinking, and lay the ground for a realistic and comprehensive multilateral approach inclusive of all actors and all the issues at the heart of the conflict.”
Also at the meeting, the Director of the Humanitarian Financing and Resource Mobilization Division of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Lisa Doughten, noted that in Syria, the earthquakes “hit when needs were already at their highest level since the start of the conflict.”
She said, “they affected close to 9 million people across the country and killed at least 5,900. Millions were displaced, and countless essential service facilities were damaged or destroyed. The United Nations and our humanitarian partners responded immediately following the earthquakes.”
She also reminded members of the importance of ensuring that Bab al-Salam and Al Ra’ee and Bab Al-Hawa crossings remain open.
Doughten continued, “2023 sadly saw hostilities in northern Syria return to levels not seen since 2019.”
According to her, “since August, the fighting in north-west and north-east Syria has killed or injured hundreds of civilians. It has forced tens of thousands of people to endure – and many of them, in fact, to relive – the trauma of displacement.”
She said, “the hostilities have caused yet further damage to civilian facilities, including critical infrastructure, depriving millions of people of access to electricity, safe water, education and essential health services.”
She added, “with deep sadness, our preliminary assessments forecast further declines in food security in 2024, including a 29 percent increase in severe food insecurity rates among displaced people living in camps and informal sites. In this context, the consequences of funding shortfalls for food assistance will be devastating.”
Doughten stressed, “the situation is unsustainable and insupportable.”
Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, told Council members that “there are increasing flights of the Israeli Air Force targeting Syrian objects first and foremost the airports in Damascus and Aleppo, which are used as the main gateways for the introduction into Syria of UN humanitarian assistance as well as the heightened hostilities, an exchange of strikes on the Blue line between Lebanon and Israel.”
According to him, there is a risk of “dragging Syria into a full regional confliction.”
For his part, US Ambassador Robert A. Wood told the Council that the US “join the majority of UN member states in reiterating the call for the Syrian regime to immediately release all those arbitrarily held and to provide information about the 10s of 1000s were missing.”
He added, “We were alarmed by the reports that violence has reached its worst level since 2019.”
Alhakam Dandy, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations, said, “the US and the EU continue to impose unilateral inhumane sanctions that have significant impact on the enjoyment of the most basic human rights by Syrians, including children, women and the elderly, as they are denied food, medical care, electricity, housing and essential services.”
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