UN / SYRIA POLITICAL HUMANITARIAN
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STORY: UN / SYRIA POLITICAL HUMANITARIAN
TRT: 04:07
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 30 MAY 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
30 MAY 2023, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir O. Pedersen, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“It is vital that the recent diplomatic moves are matched with real action. Because let us remember that the Syrian people continue to suffer on a massive scale. While they have observed recent diplomatic developments, they have not yet seen any improvement in the reality of their lives, whether they live inside Syria or outside Syria.”
4. Wide shot, Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir O. Pedersen, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“If the Syrian Government were to start to address in a more systematic manner the protection concerns of the displaced, working closely with the United Nations, and if donors were to help the United Nations to do more to address the concerns all Syrians have about livelihoods, then this could help to do what we all say we want to do – build confidence, and begin to change realities on the ground for all Syrians – not only the displaced.”
6. Wide shot, OCHA Deputy Director Ghada Eltahir Mudawi at the dais
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ghada Eltahir Mudawi, Deputy Director, Operations and Advocacy Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“For the first time in the history of the crisis, people across every sub-district in Syria are experiencing some degree of humanitarian stress. Some 12 million people – more than 50 per cent of the population – are currently food insecure and a further 2.9 million are at risk of sliding into hunger. In addition, recent data show that malnutrition is on the rise, with stunting and maternal malnutrition rates reaching levels never seen before.”
8. Med shot, Mudawi at the dais
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ghada Eltahir Mudawi, Deputy Director, Operations and Advocacy Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Syrians need the support of the international community now more than at any time in the past 12 years. While efforts continue to achieve a lasting political solution, we must ensure that the urgent needs of women, men and children of Syria – life-saving aid and early recovery – are made a priority, and adequately resourced and funded.”
10. Med shot, United States Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield at the dais
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United States:
Although the Assad regime claims it is ready to work with regional actors to receive refugees, we see no indication that the regime is committed to ending its harassment, arbitrary detention, torture, and ill-treatment of returnees. Moreover, the regime, along with Russia, continues airstrikes that impact IDP camps in northern Syria. And we must also press the Assad regime to create the conditions for safe, voluntary, and dignified returns of refugees.”
12. Med shot, Syria Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh at the dais
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bassam Sabbagh, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Syria:
“We haven't heard today from the representative of the United States of America on her opinion on her country's continued violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. For the American forces are still illegally present on Syrian territory. Moreover, they support separatist militias in north-eastern Syria. They continue plundering Syrian oil and wealth. The latest such act was the smuggling of 42 tanks loaded with hundreds of tons of Syrian oil from fields in Al Jazeera region through illegal crossings heading towards their US military bases and Iraqi territory.”
14. Wide shot, Council
The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Geir O. Pedersen, today (30 May) said it was “vital” that recent diplomatic moves in Syria “are matched with real action,” as the Syrian people “continue to suffer on massive scale.”
Pedersen noted that during the past month there was a meeting in Moscow of the Foreign Ministers of Iran, Russia, Syria and Turkiye; a meeting in Amman of the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria; resolutions adopted in Cairo and Jeddah by the League of Arab States; the establishment of an Arab Ministerial Liaison Committee to follow up on the implementation of the statement adopted in Amman and continue the direct dialogue with the Syrian government; and the Arab Summit in Jeddah, with the participation of the President of Syria.
There have also been meetings in Brussels of European and American officials on Syria.
The Special Envoy said, “while they have observed recent diplomatic developments, they have not yet seen any improvement in the reality of their lives, whether they live inside Syria or outside Syria.”
He told the Council that “if the Syrian Government were to start to address in a more systematic manner the protection concerns of the displaced, working closely with the United Nations, and if donors were to help the United Nations to do more to address the concerns all Syrians have about livelihoods, then this could help to do what we all say we want to do – build confidence, and begin to change realities on the ground for all Syrians – not only the displaced.”
On the humanitarian front, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Deputy Director for Operations and Advocacy, Ghada Eltahir Mudawi, said, “for the first time in the history of the crisis, people across every sub-district in Syria are experiencing some degree of humanitarian stress.”
Mudawi said, “some 12 million people – more than 50 per cent of the population – are currently food insecure and a further 2.9 million are at risk of sliding into hunger. In addition, recent data show that malnutrition is on the rise, with stunting and maternal malnutrition rates reaching levels never seen before.”
She said, “Syrians need the support of the international community now more than at any time in the past 12 years.”
She called for “a lasting political solution” and ensuring that “the urgent needs of women, men and children of Syria – life-saving aid and early recovery – are made a priority, and adequately resourced and funded.”
United States Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, “although the Assad regime claims it is ready to work with regional actors to receive refugees, we see no indication that the regime is committed to ending its harassment, arbitrary detention, torture, and ill-treatment of returnees.”
Moreover, she added, “the regime, along with Russia, continues airstrikes that impact IDP camps in northern Syria.”
Thomas-Greenfield said, “we must also press the Assad regime to create the conditions for safe, voluntary, and dignified returns of refugees.”
For his part, Syria’s Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh said, “we haven't heard today from the representative of the United States of America on her opinion on her country's continued violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. For the American forces are still illegally present on Syrian territory. Moreover, they support separatist militias in north-eastern Syria. They continue plundering Syrian oil and wealth. The latest such act was the smuggling of 42 tanks loaded with hundreds of tons of Syrian oil from fields in Al Jazeera region through illegal crossings heading towards their US military bases and Iraqi territory.”