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STORY: UN / SYRIA GUTERRES
TRT: 03:26
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 12 MARCH 2018, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
12 MARCH 2018, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, Syrian ambassador
4. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“There has been no cessation of hostilities. Violence continues in eastern Ghouta and beyond, including in Afrin, parts of Idlib and into Damascus and its suburbs.”
5. Wide shot, Council
6. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The resolution calls for and I quote, all parties to lift the sieges in populated areas, including in Eastern Ghouta, Yarmouk, Fu'ah and Kefriya. No sieges have been lifted. The resolution demands for the medical evacuation of the critically sick and wounded. To our knowledge, not one critically sick or wounded person has yet been evacuated.”
7. Med shot, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“I believe that despite all the difficulties, lack of trust, mutual suspicions, or cold calculations, it should be possible to implement resolution 2401; it should be possible to have a cessation of hostilities; it should be possible to deliver aid; it should be possible to evacuate the sick and wounded; it should be possible to lift the sieges; it should be possible to accelerate humanitarian mine action throughout Syria; it should also be possible to remove Security Council listed terrorist fighters from conflict zones without massive and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. We cannot give up for the sake of the Syrian people.”
9. Pan left, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Nikki Haley, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“The ceasefire has failed. The situation of the civilians in eastern Ghouta is dire. And the United States is acting. We have drafted a new ceasefire resolution that provides no room for evasion. It is simple, straightforward, and binding. It will take effect immediately upon adoption by this Council. It contains no counterterrorism loopholes for Assad, Iran and the Russians to hide behind. And it focuses on the area the Secretary-General has identified, and that the world can see, holds the greatest urgency for the lives of innocent civilians: Damascus City and eastern Ghouta.”
11. Med shot, delegates
12. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vassily Alekseevich Nebenzia, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
“We think it’s important for everyone to understand that resolution 2401 is not talking about any immediate ceasefire, that would have been utopian, what they are talking about is a preliminary agreement amongst parties as a precondition for sustained de-escalation in all difficult areas of Syria, not only eastern Ghouta.”
13. Med shot, delegates
14. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bashar Ja'afari, Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations:
“I have listened to the US representative, who is again and again levelling charges against my country, saying that her country will undertake operations against my country, notwithstanding the international legitimacy of it, exactly as they have done when they bombarded al-Shayrat Air Base in my country last year.”
15. Wide shot, Council
Secretary-General António Guterres today (12 Mar) told the Security Council that, despite the passage of Resolution 2401 on 24 February, “there has been no cessation of hostilities” In Syria.
The Secretary-General said, “violence continues in eastern Ghouta and beyond,” including in Afrin, parts of Idlib and into Damascus and its suburbs.
He said humanitarian aid continues to face blockages, with the humanitarian and human rights situation becoming more desperate by the day.
Guterres said, “the resolution calls for and I quote, all parties to lift the sieges in populated areas, including in Eastern Ghouta, Yarmouk, Fu'ah and Kefriya. No sieges have been lifted. The resolution demands for the medical evacuation of the critically sick and wounded. To our knowledge, not one critically sick or wounded person has yet been evacuated.”
Despite “all the difficulties, lack of trust, mutual suspicions, or cold calculations,” he said “it should be possible to implement resolution 2401; it should be possible to have a cessation of hostilities; it should be possible to deliver aid; it should be possible to evacuate the sick and wounded; it should be possible to lift the sieges; it should be possible to accelerate humanitarian mine action throughout Syria; it should also be possible to remove Security Council listed terrorist fighters from conflict zones without massive and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
United States Ambassador, Nikki Haley, told the Council “the ceasefire has failed.”
She said, the United States has drafted “a new ceasefire resolution that provides no room for evasion” that contains “no counterterrorism loopholes for Assad, Iran and the Russians to hide behind.”
Russian Ambassador Vassily Alekseevich Nebenzia noted that resolution 2401 “is not talking about any immediate ceasefire.”
He said, “that would have been utopian, what they are talking about is a preliminary agreement amongst parties as a precondition for sustained de-escalation in all difficult areas of Syria, not only eastern Ghouta.”
Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari, for his part, said Ambassador Haley “is again and again levelling charges against my country, saying that her country will undertake operations against my country, notwithstanding the international legitimacy of it, exactly as they have done when they bombarded al-Shayrat Air Base in my country last year.”
