Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUnifeed
UN / MIDDLE EAST
STORY: UN / MIDDLE EAST
TRT: 2.59
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 18 MAY 2010, NEW YOTK CITY
RECENT 2010, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
18 MAY 2010, NEW YOTK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Cutaway, United States and United Kingdom delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Serry Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestine Authority (Gaza), United Nations:
“Both parties have made specific commitments, and received certain assurances, which have enabled proximity talks to begin. Some of these remain confidential. These commitments must be respected, as must obligations under the Roadmap and international law. We welcome US President Obama’s reaffirmation that both parties would be held accountable for actions that undermine trust during the talks.”
5. Cutaway, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Serry Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestine Authority (Gaza), United Nations:
“Major water and sanitation interventions cannot wait. The aquifer underlying Gaza is collapsing, and is expected to be completely unusable within two years. The salinity of water available is reducing agricultural productivity, while raw sewage continues to flow at alarming levels into the sea –as bad for Gaza’s neighbours as it is unacceptable for Gaza itself.”
7. Cutaway, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Serry Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestine Authority (Gaza), United Nations:
“Within the Gaza strip, we condemn the extra-judicial execution by Hamas of two Palestinian prisoners on 15 April and a further three executions carried out today, without Presidential authority. We call on Hamas not to carry out any further executions. Hamas demolished approximately twenty homes two days in Rafah, which it alleges were built illegally.”
9. Wide shot, Serry approaches stakeout microphone
RECENT 2010, NEW YORK CITY
10. Cutaway, cameramen
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Serry Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestine Authority (Gaza), United Nations:
“If we want to improve the situation in Gaza, that also means more predictable access for commercial goods into Gaza. So I’m also in contact with Israeli authorities about that, to give the legitimate business community the opportunity to import what they think they want to import rather then having to work on the basis of what Israel determines can go in.”
RECENT 2010, NEW YORK CITY
12. Cutaway, journalists hands taking notes
18 MAY 2010, NEW YOTK CITY
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Serry Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestine Authority (Gaza), United Nations:
“I think it is essential for the parties to indeed address the core issues. That means that Jerusalem, the refugee issue, security. All these issues now will have to be addressed in earnest by the parties. We need a serious proximity phase before the parties could then transition into direct talks. I’m not saying that that is going to be easy, I’ve already been telling you how important it is that parties also respect their commitments which they have been partly openly and partly I think more discreetly been given to the US administration, but as I said at least this is a beginning after sixteen months in which we have only been talking about talks.”
14. Med shot, Serry leaves microphone behind
As new indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians get under way, a senior United Nations official warned today that rapid progress is vital in light of multiple challenges, including efforts by militants on both sides to derail the process.
“Both parties have made specific commitments, and received certain assurances, which have enabled proximity talks to begin,” Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry told the Security Council in a regular monthly briefing of the talks initiated last week under United States mediation after an 18-month gap in negotiations following Israel’s military offensive against Gaza.
Serry said that those commitments “must be respected, as must obligations under the Roadmap and international law”. He also welcomed United States President Obama’s reaffirmation that both parties “would be held accountable for actions that undermine trust during the talks.”
Talking about issues that needed to move forward with ‘urgency’, Serry said that major water and sanitation interventions could not wait any longer, and he specified the situation of the aquifer underlying Gaza which was “collapsing, and is expected to be completely unusable within two years”.
He also explained that the salinity of water available was reducing agricultural productivity, “while raw sewage continues to flow at alarming levels into the sea –as bad for Gaza’s neighbours as it is unacceptable for Gaza itself.”
Serry also condemned five recent extra-judicial executions by Hamas, calling for an end to any further such killings.
Speaking to reporters later he said that “If the situation in Gaza was to improve that also meant “more predictable access for commercial goods into Gaza”.
He also said that in order to make the indirect talks successful, “it is essential for the parties to indeed address the core issues. That means that Jerusalem, the refugee issue, security, all these issues now will have to be addressed earnestly by the parties.”
Download
There is no media available to download.
