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STORY: GENEVA / DE MISTURA
TRT: 2:22
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 13 SEPTEMBER 2016, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
13 SEPTEMBER 2016, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, Palais des Nations exterior
2. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Staffan de Mistura, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria:
“By early morning every report we have been seeing indicates a significant, significant drop in violence. Today calm appears to have prevailed across Hama, Latakia, Aleppo city and rural Aleppo and Idlib, with only some allegations of sporadic and geographically isolated incidents. Sources on the ground, which do matter, including inside Aleppo city say that the situation has dramatically improved with no air strikes.”
3. Med shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Staffan de Mistura, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria:
“First of all avoid that any incident which is unavoidable in a conflict of five years, with so many fighting and moving parts, could then move further into making the cessation of hostilities very fragile; so avoiding any type of snowball effect of any incident.”
5. Wide shot, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Staffan de Mistura, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria:
“Well, if 48 hours work out and we are able to have also humanitarian access as we have agreed, in other words unhindered and without conditionality, neither by the government nor frankly by the opposition, then people will be seeing a reduction of violence and increase of humanitarian aid, in other words, no bombs and more trucks.”
7. Med shot, cameraperson
8. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Staffan de Mistura, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria:
“There is a need of assurances that the drivers and the convoys will be unhindered and untouched, B, that there is no need for a letter of authorization but simple notification to the government of what is inside those trucks, and three the receiving end, the so-called provincial councils will not put conditions, but rather say: ‘Thank you. Our population needs UN aid.’ That needs to be taken care of, there is some homework to be done by others, but we are ready; but trucks have not yet moved.”
9. Med shot, cameraperson
10. Wide shot, De Mistura leaving room
United Nations (UN) Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura said despite some allegations of air strikes and mortar shelling last night, reports indicated a “significant drop in violence” by early Tuesday morning.
Speaking to the press in Geneva today (13 Sep), de Mistura said that calm appeared to have “prevailed” across Hama, Latakkia, Aleppo and Idlib, with only some allegations of “sporadic and geographically isolated incidents.” He said Russia and the United States, the two co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), in addition to the government of Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, Turkey, and the armed opposition had all voiced support to the agreement “in one form or the other.”
De Mistura stressed that the 48 hour benchmark for the cessation of hostilities would be important as it would be assessed by the co-chairs of the ISSG. He said the most delicate part would be to avoid any type of “snowball effect” of any isolated incident which was unavoidable after five years of conflict.
The Special Envoy said aid trucks were loaded and ready to enter Aleppo, but there was a need for “assurances that the drivers and the convoys will be unhindered and untouched.” In the case of Eastern Aleppo, de Mistura said the government needed to allow unhindered access for aid deliveries basing itself on the agreed “UN MM approach.” This meant that UN trucks would simply give prior notification to the government of the convoys and their content without requiring approval letters or being checked, and then would report on what was distributed. On the receiving end, de Mistura said the Aleppo provincial council needed to accept the fact that this aid was urgent and was being carried out according to a UN approach. He said that there was “some homework to be done by others” but the UN stood ready to deliver aid.
