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STORY: UN / MIDDLE EAST
TRT: 2.29
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 26 SEPTEMBER 2012, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
26 SEPTEMBER 2012, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nabil Elaraby Secretary-General of the Arab League:
“The time has come, Mr. President, for us to review our calculations in the way we tackle this issue and review the approach of the past one based on conflict management rather than ending conflict. This inter alia requires avoiding double standards. It requires avoiding double measures. With the exception of one or two resolutions in the 1940’s, more than 200 have been adopted since. How strange not a single one calls to act under chapter VII of the UN Charter.”
5. Wide shot, audience
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State of the United States:
“Unfortunately in Syria, Bashar al-Assad clings to power and his campaign of brutality has sparked a humanitarian crisis. The United States has committed more than 100 million dollars to help the Syrian people and we continue to insist that the violence must end and a political transition without Assad must move forward.”
7. Wide shot, audience
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia:
“A significant share of responsibility for the continuing bloodshed rests upon the states that instigate the opponents of Bashar al-Assad to reject the ceasefire and dialogue and at the same time to demand an unconditional capitulation of the regime. Such an approach is unrealistic and in fact it encourages terrorist methods that the armed opposition is using more and more often. The refusal of some members of the Security Council to condemn these terrorist acts is of deep concern and it calls into question the fundamental line of the Security Council to counter terrorism in all its forms.”
9. Wide shot, audience
The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, today (26 September) called on the Security Council to “review our calculations” in the way the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is being approached, challenging the Council to act under chapter VII of the UN Charter which provides for possible sanctions or possible use of force.
Elaraby said that the past approach has been “one based on conflict management rather than ending conflict.”
He said that the Council must avoid “double standards” and “double measures” and recalled that “with the exception of one or two resolutions in the 1940’s, more than 200 have been adopted since” and none calls for acting under chapter VII.
Chapter VII of the UN charter gives the Security Council the power to authorize military force or other sanctions if “the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" is determined.
Elaraby was addressing a High Level Security Council meeting on the Middle East on the sidelines of the 67th General Assembly General Debate.
Speaking to the same meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “clings to power and his campaign of brutality has sparked a humanitarian crisis.”
Clinton said the United States continues to insist “that the violence must end and a political transition without Assad must move forward.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said “a significant share of responsibility for the continuing bloodshed rests upon the states that instigate the opponents of Bashar al-Assad to reject the ceasefire and dialogue and at the same time to demand an unconditional capitulation of the regime.”
Lavrov said “such an approach is unrealistic and in fact it encourages terrorist methods that the armed opposition is using more and more often.”
The Russian Foreign Minister added that “the refusal of some members of the Security Council to condemn these terrorist acts is of deep concern and it calls into question the fundamental line of the Security Council to counter terrorism in all its forms.”
The Council has remained deadlocked as Russia and China have vetoed two Security Council draft resolutions that would have declared the situation in Syria a threat to international peace.
