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STORY: UN / SYRIA
TRT: 3:30
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 25 JULY 2016, NEW YORK CITY
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UNHQ exterior
25 JULY 2016, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephen O’Brien, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“The international community simply cannot let eastern Aleppo city become yet another, and by far the largest, besieged area. This is medieval and shameful. We must not allow this to happen. But, the clock is ticking. I urgently call on the parties, and those with influence, to act now to establish a weekly, 48-hour humanitarian pause for eastern Aleppo city so that the UN and partners have safe, regular and sustained access to the quarter of a million people trapped behind the front lines.”
4. Med shot, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephen O’Brien, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“We will see such images again unless the parties enable immediate and unconditional humanitarian deliveries to the four towns. This is no hollow warning - this is highly likely to occur again unless you enforce access.”
6. Wide shot, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
“We don’t need a promise of an investigation. We are already waiting for investigations into the civilian casualties as a result of bombing in Libya, but we still haven’t heard a word about that either. So I’m sure that the US military members know how the situation stands now.”
8. Pan left, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
“We really can’t shake the impression that the spotlight is being intentionally focused on the provision of humanitarian assistance to those areas where the government of Syria is carrying out counter-terrorism operations. In certain areas controlled by the government the people are just as much in need. Humanitarian convoys don’t seem to be in any special hurry. These double standards have to be done away with.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“Despite countless videos, reams and reams of elaborate photographic evidence, hundreds of thousands of eyewitness reports gathered by credible independent actors, we get from the Syrian regime time and again only blithe, uncurious, but always dogmatic denials; a cold, cruel indifference to the fate of the Syrian people.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“Aleppo is burning. Aleppo is being besieged. The single life line to this this city, and to nearly 300,000 people, has been cut off by this regime (Syrian) backed by that regime (Russian).”
14. Wide shot, Syrian ambassador
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bashar Ja’afari, Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations:
“The creation by some of cannibal monsters, those who like to take photos of themselves with the innocent victims they have decapitated or thrown out of high buildings while alive or those who they cook in pots in Aleppo or those who they have burned alive in the labourers’ city of Adra or the women and children they have kidnapped and enslaved from the villages of Latakia, Hama, and Homs, is an atrocity which the Syrians will not forgive and a heinous crime against humanity that does not require investigators, evidence, and police dogs to reveal the perpetrator. The criminal is known and the sponsors of this criminal are known.”
16. Zoom out, Security Council
United Nations (UN) Humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien has called for a 48-hour weekly humanitarian pause to the fighting in eastern part Aleppo to reach “the quarter of a million people trapped behind the front lines.”
Briefing the Security Council today (25 Jul) on the situation in Syria, O’Brien said residents were at serious risk of besiegement as the Castello road, the last remaining access route in and out of the east of the city, had been cut off due to fighting. O’Brien said access to basic necessities was running out, and medical facilities in eastern Aleppo continued to be attacked.
O’Brien said he was “alarmed by reports of deteriorating humanitarian conditions and urgent medical evacuation needs in the towns of Madaya, Foah, Zabadani and Kefraya, where over 62,000 people” continued to be besieged. He said despite government approvals to provide assistance, the UN and its partners had “not been able to access the towns because of tension amongst parties to the agreement, heavy aerial bombardment in Idlib, and shelling on Foah and Kefraya.” He reminded the Council of the disturbing images of starving children in Madaya and said “we will see such images again unless the parties enable immediate and unconditional humanitarian deliveries to the four towns.”
Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin said “terrorists” in Aleppo were using the ceasefire regime to “receive fortification from abroad, resupply, and mobilize fresh forces including through recruiting children.” He said the Castello road was being used to provide weapons and armaments to terrorists and for the “passage of jihad-mobiles with suicide bombers”, not to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians. Churkin said those in eastern Aleppo could easily move by day to the western part of the city “where the situation is significantly better.” Churkin called on UN staff to “carefully follow their mandate, respect the sovereignty of Syria, and not deviate from the principles of neutrality and impartiality.” He said, “We really can’t shake the impression that the spotlight is being intentionally focused on the provision of humanitarian assistance to those areas where the government of Syria is carrying out counter-terrorism operations.” He added that people in government controlled areas were “just as much in need” yet “humanitarian convoys don’t seem to be in any special hurry.”
Churkin said he was deeply worried about information that strikes carried out by the United States (US)-led coalition against Da’esh (ISIL) led to the killing of dozens of civilians were including women and children. He said, “We don’t need a promise of an investigation. We are already waiting for investigations into the civilian casualties as a result of bombing in Libya, but we still haven’t heard a word about that either. So I’m sure that the US military members know how the situation stands now.”
US ambassador Samantha Power said eastern Aleppo was “quickly falling victim to the Assad regime’s typical pattern of starve and surrender tactics.” She said the government’s military advances around Aleppo supported by Russia now threatened to “bring the suffering of the Syrian people to a new low.”
Power condemned the beheading of a twelve-year old boy by “rebel fighters”. She noted that the opposition had condemned this crime and promised to bring those responsible for Abdullah Issa’s death to justice in a “transparent manner – something we have never heard the Assad regime do when faced with similar allegations of atrocities.”
Power said the Russian Federation was in “an extremely weak position to point fingers at the United States.” She looked forward to “Russia opening just a single investigation into strikes that have killed civilians.” Power said the US would “carefully and thoroughly” review any credible information on a reported airstrike that “may have caused a large number of civilian casualties in Manbij.” She said if the US “determined that civilians were harmed in Manbij by our strikes, we will acknowledge it and look at what steps can be taken, consistent with the policies that President Obama announced in his July 1 executive order on pre- and post-strike measures to address civilian casualties in U.S. operations.”
Syrian ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said his government did not close the Castello road rather it was “trying to open it and free it from terrorists that are using it to cut humanitarian assistance to Aleppo and Idlib, and stop the flow of terrorist from Turkey.” Ja’afari said the French air force bombed a village in the suburbs of Idlib killing 164 civilians held by Da’esh as hostages. He said the strike was a result of the French President François Hollande seeking “revenge” for the victims of Nice by bombing Da’esh in Syria. However, He said the terrorists left the village when they received information of the airstrike. Ja’afari said, “The French President wanted revenge for Nice so he killed double the amount of civilians as the terrorist.”
Ja’afari asked why those who committed terrorist acts in western countries are not called “moderate armed opposition.” He said terrorism is terrorism and the Syrian people were the ones suffering from terrorism.
