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STORY: UN / SYRIA
TRT: 04:25
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 23 OCTOBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
23 OCTOBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Various shots, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir O. Pedersen, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“Regional spillover into Syria is alarming and could get much worse, with serious implications for Syria and international peace and security.”
4. Med shot, OCHA’s Director of the Operations and Advocacy Division Edem Wosornu, next to Syria and Iran representatives
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir O. Pedersen, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“Hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Lebanese have fled Lebanon into Syria – into a country that is itself experiencing escalating conflict. The past month has seen the fastest-paced and broadest-ranging campaign of Israeli airstrikes in the last thirteen years. Dozens of locations across Syria have been hit, including residential areas, even in the heart of Damascus.”
6. Wide shot, Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir O. Pedersen, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“In the Golan, some construction activity has been carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the vicinity of the area of separation. During this activity, UNDOF observed an Israeli battle tank and excavators cross the ceasefire line, into the area of separation. There were also reports of the IDF carrying out at least one drone strike in the area of separation. Pursuant to the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement, no military forces, equipment or activity by either Israel or Syria are permitted in the area of separation.”
8. Wide shot, Pedersen speaking
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir O. Pedersen, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“I repeat my call for the respect of the sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity of Syria. Syria cannot become a free-for-all venue, where different actors settle their scores or fuel other theatres, nor a staging ground for attacks or retaliation.”
10. Med shot, Wosornu and representatives
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Operations and Advocacy Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Syrians are returning to their country under the extreme duress of hostilities in Lebanon. It remains imperative that their safety, security and fundamental rights in Syria are ensured, and they must have the freedom to reach their preferred destinations. It is equally vital that humanitarian organizations have unhindered access to those arriving and to all people in need.”
12. Med shot, Pedersen and representatives
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Operations and Advocacy Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Unless the escalation in hostilities across the region is restrained, the recent impacts and destabilization we have seen in Syria could be just the start of much worse to come. Syrians have been suffering for far too long. Alongside de-escalation in the region, efforts for peace and stability in Syria are as urgent now as they have ever been.”
14. Wide shot, Syrian Ambassador Qusay al-Dahhak speaking
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Qusay al-Dahhak, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Syria:
“For more than seven decades, our region has been suffering from the Israeli occupation, the continued Israeli occupation of the Arab territories in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, and the systematic attacks, massacres, and crimes that occupation authorities have been persistently committing. Our region is also suffering from hostile policies pursued by Western countries supporting Israel at the expense of the security and stability of our countries and at the expense of the lives and wellbeing of our people.”
16. Wide shot, al-Dahhak speaking
17. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Qusay al-Dahhak, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Syria:
“The solution is available, if the US administration was honest, but it is not. The solution is for the US administration to stop its engagement in killing civilians in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, and to stop arming the Israeli killing machine, and enable the Security Council to fulfill its responsibility in maintaining international peace and security in the region.”
18. Wide shot, Council
The Special Envoy for Syria Geir O. Pedersen today (23 Oct) warned that “regional spillover into Syria is alarming and could get much worse, with serious implications for Syria and international peace and security.”
Addressing the Security Council, the Special Envoy said, “hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Lebanese have fled Lebanon into Syria – into a country that is itself experiencing escalating conflict,” and noted that “the past month has seen the fastest-paced and broadest-ranging campaign of Israeli airstrikes in the last thirteen years.”
Pedersen told the Council that in the Golan, “construction activity has been carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the vicinity of the area of separation,” and the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) had observed “an Israeli battle tank and excavators cross the ceasefire line, into the area of separation.”
He stressed that pursuant to the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement, “no military forces, equipment or activity by either Israel or Syria are permitted in the area of separation.”
The Special Envoy repeated his call “for the respect of the sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity of Syria” and said Syria “cannot become a free-for-all venue, where different actors settle their scores or fuel other theatres, nor a staging ground for attacks or retaliation.”
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ (OCHA) Director of Operations and Advocacy Division, Edem Wosornu, told the Council that “Syrians are returning to their country under the extreme duress of hostilities in Lebanon.”
Wosornu stressed the need that “their safety, security and fundamental rights in Syria are ensured, and they must have the freedom to reach their preferred destinations,” adding that it was “equally vital that humanitarian organizations have unhindered access to those arriving and to all people in need.”
The OCHA official said, “unless the escalation in hostilities across the region is restrained, the recent impacts and destabilization we have seen in Syria could be just the start of much worse to come. Syrians have been suffering for far too long. Alongside de-escalation in the region, efforts for peace and stability in Syria are as urgent now as they have ever been.”
Syrian Ambassador Qusay al-Dahhak for his part said, “for more than seven decades, our region has been suffering from the Israeli occupation, the continued Israeli occupation of the Arab territories in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, and the systematic attacks, massacres, and crimes that occupation authorities have been persistently committing,” as is also “suffering from hostile policies pursued by Western countries supporting Israel at the expense of the security and stability of our countries and at the expense of the lives and wellbeing of our people.”
Al-Dahhak said, “the solution is available, if the US administration was honest, but it is not. The solution is for the US administration to stop its engagement in killing civilians in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, and to stop arming the Israeli killing machine, and enable the Security Council to fulfill its responsibility in maintaining international peace and security in the region.”
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