UN / LEAGUE OF ARAB STATES

The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, says that a "serious process of negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will not be viable while settlements continue being built in the occupied territories. UNTV

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:02
• Production Date: 24 September 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Subject Topical: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; DISARMAMENT
• Geographic Subject: MIDDLE EAST
• MAMS Id: U100924e

Description

STORY: UN / LEAGUE OF ARAB STATES
SOURCE: UNTV
TRT: 2.02
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS

DATELINE: 24 SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK CITY/ FILE

Shotlist

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior UN building

24 SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, dais
3. Med shot, reporters
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Amr Mohammed Moussa, Secretary-General of the Arab League:
“Negotiations, a viable, serious process of negotiations, cannot go at the same time with the settlements that are being built in the occupied territories which affects the territorial integrity of the territories that would be the territory of the new State of Palestine. So to continue building settlements and then ask for continuous negotiations, those are serious contradictions in terms.”
5. Med shot, reporter
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Amr Mohammed Moussa, Secretary-General of the Arab League:
“We see nothing wrong in calling on Israel to join the NPT. This is exactly what the International Conference for the NPT Review, which took place in May here in New York, that calls for the universality of the NPT, and calling on all countries that have not yet done so, to join the NPT.”
7. Med shot, reporter
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Amr Mohammed Moussa, Secretary-General of the Arab League:
“If it is not – this nuclear issue – is not handled well, and is not handled in a fair fashion, there will be an arms race in the Middle East. It is impossible to have one country only possessing nuclear weapons, and trying to - helped by others off course, by those forces – to be the only one which has. Why should Israel be the only one? This is a question that anyone of us is asking themselves, and the answer of course is, no, it shouldn’t be the only one. In fact there should be no nuclear power in the Middle East. We need to ensure that the Middle East is free from all nuclear weapons, all weapons of mass destruction.”
9. Med shot, reporter
10. Various shots, end of meeting

Storyline

The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, told reporters this morning (24 September) that a “serious process of negotiations” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will not be viable, while settlements continue to be built in the occupied territories.

Moussa told reporters in New York that settlements affect the integrity of what eventually would become “the territory of the new State of Palestine”. He added that “to continue building settlements and then ask for continuous negotiations” is a “serious contradiction in terms.”

Turning to the nuclear issue in the Middle East, Moussa said that the Arab League sees “nothing wrong” in calling on Israel to join the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) pointing out that the International Conference for the NPT Review, which took place last May in New York, calls “on all countries that have not yet done so, to join the NPT.”

The Secretary-General of the Arab League warned that if the nuclear issue “is not handled well, and is not handled in a fair fashion, there will be an arms race in the Middle East”.

He stressed that it was “impossible” that Israel continue to be the only country in the region to have nuclear weapons, and said that “in fact there should be no nuclear power in the Middle East”.

The League of Arab States is a regional organization composed of 22 Arab nations from North and Northeast Africa, and in Southwest Asia.