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UN / CHURKIN
STORY: UN / CHURKIN
TRT: 2.24
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 11 JULY 2013, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
21 JUNE 2013, NEW YORK CITY
2. Med shot, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of the Russian Federation walks up to the stakeout position
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
3. Close up, reporter’s notepad
11 JULY 2013, NEW YORK CITY
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
“The notion that Russia is blocking anything is completely misleading, because from the outset, immediately after the Syrian Government invited the United Nations to investigate the use of chemical weapons on March 19, we have been doing everything we could in order to make sure that that investigation were to happen. And it was not through the fault of ours that the Syrian Government was presented the formulas for that investigation, Iraq time formulas, which of course it was impossible to accept.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
5. Close up, reporter’s notepad
11 JULY 2013, NEW YORK CITY
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
“What our Western colleagues have been doing is trying to produce the maximum number of allegations with minimum credibility, in an effort, one might think, to create maximum problems for arranging such investigation.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
7. Close up, reporter’s notepad
11 JULY 2013, NEW YORK CITY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
“What G8 meant was that first there should be an investigation and then the results of the investigation should go to the Security Council for its assessment. But you know how our British friends are; they even drive on the wrong side of the road. So they tried to put the cart before the horse once again. And we thought that it was completely unreasonable and contrary to the G8 declaration that we are referring to.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
9. Close up, reporter’s notepad
11 JULY 2013, NEW YORK CITY
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
“One can read quotes and remarks by a senior Western diplomat, senior western envoy, repeating this naïve story they came up from the outset after March 19 that it was the Government itself who was shooting but missed the target and, you know, killed its own people. Of course if you were to take the time to read our analysis it’s absolutely clear that both the projectile and the chemical were produced in a way which rules it out that they were something which was a result of the production by the Syrian Government.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
11. Close up, reporter’s notepad
11 JULY 2013, NEW YORK CITY
12. Pan right, Churkin walks away from the stakeout position.
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of the Russian Federation told reporters today (11 July) that the notion that Russia was blocking and investigation on the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria was “completely misleading.”
Churkin said that the Russian Government had been “doing everything we could in order to make sure that that investigation were to happen.”
Instead, he said, the cause of the delays had been the formulas presented to the Syrian Government, which were “impossible to accept.”
Churkin said these formulas were similar to the process leading to the Iraqi war and indicated that Western Governments had been “trying to produce the maximum number of allegations with minimum credibility, in an effort, one might think, to create maximum problems for arranging such investigation.”
The Russian Ambassador also referred to the 18 June declaration by the G8 which condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and called for a UN probe.
He said the declaration stated that “there should be an investigation and then the results of the investigation should go to the Security Council for its assessment.”
Churkin added that the United Kingdom had “tried to put the cart before the horse” by bringing the matter to the Security Council first.
He also refuted what he referred to as a “naïve story” which alleged that “it was the Government itself who was shooting but missed the target and, you know, killed its own people” on a 19 March incident.
He added that it was “absolutely clear” from the Russian analysis of the incident “that both the projectile and the chemical were produced in a way which rules it out that they were something which was a result of the production by the Syrian Government.”
Meanwhile today the United Nations disarmament chief and the head of the team probing the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria announced that they have accepted the Government’s invitation to visit Damascus for talks on carrying out the investigation.
The announcement came after a meeting at UN Headquarters on Wednesday between Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Åke Sellström, the head of the UN fact-finding mission set up in March to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict.
The focus of the mission, set up following a formal request from the Syrian Government, will be an incident involving the alleged use of chemical weapons in Kfar Dael region in Khan Al-Asal area in Aleppo governorate.
Since fighting began in March 2011 between the Syrian Government and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad as many as 100,000 people have been killed, almost 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries and a further 4 million have been internally displaced.
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