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STORY: UN / SYRIA STRIKE
TRT: 03:40
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / ARABIC / SPANISH / NATS
DATELINE: 06 APRIL 2017, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
06 APRIL 2017, NEW YORK CITY
2. Various shots, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Feltman, Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs:
“Protecting the Syrian people requires immediate action, action that is rooted in the principles of the United Nations and international law. Mindful of the risk of escalation, the Secretary-General has publicly appealed for restraint to avoid any acts that could deepen the suffering of the Syrian people. We further urge all parties involved in military operations to abide by international humanitarian law and take all necessary precautions to avoid and minimize civilian casualties.”
4. Med shot, Syrian Ambassador
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Nikki Haley, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“There are times when states are compelled to take their own action. The indiscriminate use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians is one of those times. The United States will not stand by when chemical weapons are used. It is on our vital national security interest to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons. Our military destroyed the airfield from which this week’s chemical strike took place. We were fully justified in doing so.”
6. Med shot, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Nikki Haley, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“The world is waiting for the Russian government to act responsibly in Syria. The world is waiting for Russia to reconsider its misplaced alliance with Bashar Assad. The United States will no longer wait for Assad to use chemical weapons without any consequences. Those days are over.”
8. Wide shot, Russian Ambassador at the dais
9. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vladimir Safronkov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
“We strongly condemn the illegitimate actions by the US. The consequences of this for regional and international stability could be extremely serious. This attack was a flagrant violation of the 2015 memorandum on preventing incidents and ensuring security during air operations in Syrian airspace. The Russian Ministry of Defense has stopped its cooperation with the Pentagon under that memorandum.”
10. Med shot, delegates
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mounzer Mounzer, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations:
“This treacherous act of aggression is a grave violation of the charter of the United Nations as well as all international norms and laws. The United States attempted to justify it with empty pretexts and fabricated arguments, claiming that the Syrian Arab Army has used chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhun without genuine knowledge of what happened, without identifying who was responsible, the very same pretext shouted out by terrorist organizations as well as their handlers in Washington, Ankara, Riyadh, Doha, Tel Aviv, London and Paris as well as their media.”
12. Med shot, US Ambassador
13. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sacha Sergio Llorentty Solíz, Permanent Representative of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the United Nations:
“We believe it to be the duty of this Security Council, but not just of this Council, of the United Nations organizations in all its bodies to defend multilateralism. We are here to defend multilateralism. We have agreed that this Charter, the United Nations Charter, has to be respected. And this Charter prohibits unilateral actions.”
13. Wide shot, Council
Following the United States (US) militarily response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria earlier this week, the Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, told the Security Council today (7 Apr) that “protecting the Syrian people requires immediate action, action that is rooted in the principles of the United Nations and international law.”
Feltman echoed Secretary-General António Guterres call for “restraint” in order to avoid the risk of escalation, as well as “any acts that could deepen the suffering of the Syrian people.”
He further urged “all parties involved in military operations to abide by international humanitarian law and take all necessary precautions to avoid and minimize civilian casualties.”
US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the Council that “there are times when states are compelled to take their own action.”
She said “the indiscriminate use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians is one of those times” and stressed that “we were fully justified in doing so.”
The US Ambassador said “the world is waiting for the Russian government to act responsibly in Syria. The world is waiting for Russia to reconsider its misplaced alliance with Bashar Assad. The United States will no longer wait for Assad to use chemical weapons without any consequences. Those days are over.”
Russian Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said “we strongly condemn the illegitimate actions by the US,” adding that “the consequences of this for regional and international stability could be extremely serious.”
Safronkov said “this attack was a flagrant violation of the 2015 memorandum on preventing incidents and ensuring security during air operations in Syrian airspace. The Russian Ministry of Defense has stopped its cooperation with the Pentagon under that memorandum.”
Syrian Ambassador Mounzer Mounzer said “this treacherous act of aggression is a grave violation of the charter of the United Nations as well as all international norms and laws.”
He said “the United States attempted to justify it with empty pretexts and fabricated arguments.”
For his part, Bolivian Ambassador Sacha Sergio Llorentty Solíz, held up a copy of the UN Charter and said “we are here to defend multilateralism. We have agreed that this Charter, the United Nations Charter, has to be respected. And this Charter prohibits unilateral actions.”
According to the US, the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles into the Shayrat Airbase was a response to what it states was the Syrian Government's use of chemical weapons from the base. The alleged 4 April chemical weapons attack killed many civilians in the Khan Shaykhun area of Idlib.
