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STORY: UN / SYRIA
TRT: 03:04
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 27 JULY 2017, NEW YORK CITY
FILE- NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UNHQ exterior
27 JULY 2017, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Ursula Mueller, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“The obstacles to convoys proceeding as planned are predictable: lack of approvals, lack of facilitation letters by the Government of Syria, other administrative delays, as well as insecurity and fighting. At the same time, arbitrary restrictions by some non-State armed groups, listed terrorist groups, and self-designated local authorities also continue to obstruct access in various ways, especially in Idlib and the eastern governorates of Syria.”
4. Med shot, Syrian ambassador
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ursula Mueller, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“What we, and what the Syrian people, look to the Security Council and the international community for today: that all parties uphold their basic obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, that there is protection of civilians, that there is an end to the attacks on civilian infrastructure, regular and unhindered access through all modalities, including for medical supplies, and an end to the horrific practice of besiegement.”
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bashar Ja’afari, Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nation:
“Who appointed Ms. Mueller to speak on behalf of the Syrian people? How can she go beyond her mandate to say that she ‘and the Syrian people’ request that the Security Council protect civilians? How can Ms. Muller dare to say such words before the Security Council?”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bashar Ja’afari, Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nation:
“She said that they provided assistance to 8 million people. OCHA provided assistance to 8 million people on planet Mars. It also carried out a vaccination campaign for millions of children on Mercury. It also provided humanitarian and medical assistance to million on Venus, where there is no Government. She did not say that they carried out all these positive activities in cooperation with the Syrian Government.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bashar Ja’afari, Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nation:
“I ask the Under-Secretary-General personally, and Ms. Mueller, to allow me to provide documented information recorded in the official minutes of meetings– and we as a Government as responsible for this information – which points to the fact that officials from international and United Nations agencies working on the ground in Syria have distanced themselves from the content of the monthly report at the Secretariat regarding the work of their agencies in Syria. They have also confirmed to us that they did not provide this information to OCHA and they refuse its inclusion in the monthly report in this negative way.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council
The UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs said, while violence in Syria continued to decline since early May, the humanitarian situation remained extremely difficult in many parts of the country.
Presenting the Security Council with a monthly humanitarian update on Syria today (27 Jul), Ursula Mueller said military operations have resumed in the besieged area of eastern Ghouta in Rural Damascus and Jobar neighbourhood in Damascus city. Speaking via teleconference from the Jordanian capital Amman, she added that infighting among non-State armed groups and designated terrorist groups in Idlib over the last week has caused civilian casualties and led to rising tensions. Mueller also pointed to an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 people encircled inside Raqqa city with no way to escape as anti-ISIL operations continue. She said the heavy fighting and airstrikes in Raqqa governorate continued to result in civilian casualties, with ISIL reportedly using civilians as human shields.
The Assistant Secretary-General said the obstacles to convoys proceeding as planned to besieged and hard-to-reach areas “are predictable” and include “lack of approvals, lack of facilitation letters by the Government of Syria, other administrative delays, as well as insecurity and fighting.” Mueller said her agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and the “Syrian people” look to the Security Council to ensure the protection of civilians in the conflict and “an end to the horrific practice of besiegement.”
Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said this was the forty-first report presented to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria, and not once was it presented by someone on the ground in Damascus. He called the report immature and unprofessional, adding that it hid the real reasons for the hardship faced by the Syrian people, namely terrorist activities by ISIL and Nusra, unilateral sanctions by the United States and the European Union, the negative impact of outside meddlers, and the false promises of donor which rendered the humanitarian appeal for his country only 21 percent funded.
Ja’afari said the report contradicted the noble humanitarian goals which it sets out to achieve, and which can only be achieved in cooperation with the Syrian Government. He said the Syrian Government looked for a partnership with OCHA, not for the Office to replace the government. The Syrian ambassador said officials from international and United Nations agencies working on the ground in Syria “have distanced themselves from the content of the monthly report.” He added that these officials have also confirmed to the Syrian Government that “they did not provide this information to OCHA and they refuse its inclusion in the monthly report in this negative way.”
Ja’afari hoped that the Security Council would invite humanitarian personnel working on the ground in Syria to speak at the next meeting on the humanitarian situation in the country.
