Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Good afternoon. Let’s start at the beginning.
**Syria
I’ll start off with Syria, and to say that the United Nations remains deeply alarmed about the humanitarian impact of hostilities in and around the de-escalation zone in the north-west part of the country, which has resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries in just over two months, as well as repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure and an increased level of displacement.
Hostilities, including air strikes, artillery shelling and clashes, are largely concentrated in areas controlled by non-State armed groups in Idlib, but also in Government-controlled areas.
An estimated 3 million civilians, among them 1 million children, are in imminent danger due to the violence.
Since May, 330,000 women, children and men have fled their homes. Most have sought safety in overcrowded areas where services are overstretched.
Despite ongoing hostilities and limited access, the humanitarian response by the UN and partner organisations is continuing. Critical life-saving food, protection, nutrition, shelter, education and clean water is being provided to hundreds of thousands of civilians in the [north-west].
Every month, nearly 1 million people across the north-west receive food baskets. The deployment of mobile health-care units has been fast-tracked to provide services in areas where most of the newly displaced are settling.
**Sudan
On Sudan, I also have a humanitarian update. Our colleagues there tell us that the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, are supplying medicine, nutrition supplies and trauma kits to the State Ministry of Health in East Darfur region. This is in response to a serious shortage of medicine and health supplies in that area.
WHO has also provided health kits to some of its partners in North Darfur to help 150,000 patients over the next three months. WHO is helping the State Ministry of Health in running the Kebkabiya rural hospital and will support four additional facilities in El Fasher and Kutum localities until the end of September.
Sudan is facing shortages of medicine and health supplies due to the ongoing economic crisis, which has been exacerbated by the current political situation.
The Humanitarian Response Plan for Sudan, which is calling for $1.1 billion, is only 29 per cent funded.
**Democratic Republic of the Congo
Turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it is scaling up its relief operation for conflict-displaced people in the north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The renewed inter-ethnic violence has forced tens of thousands or more from their homes and increased the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance.
The DRC is the world’s second largest hunger crisis after Yemen, according to the World Food Programme, with 13 million people food insecure, 5 million of whom are malnourished children.
In Ebola-afflicted Ituri Province, where the spike in clashes between ethnic groups has claimed at least 160 lives in recent weeks, the World Food Programme intends to triple life-saving food and cash assistance to 300,000 internally displaced people. The organization is planning to assist 5.2 million Congolese this year alone.
**Zika
The World Health Organization (WHO) today released an updated Zika travel guidance and a summary of the global epidemiology of the virus transmission. According to WHO, a total of 87 countries have or have had evidence of mosquito-borne transmission of Zika virus. An additional 61 countries and territories have evidence of the mosquito that spreads Zika but have not yet documented the virus transmission. More information online, including guidelines on travel, can be found.
**UNESCO
Just to flag that, earlier today, the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO decided to remove the Birthplace of Jesus, the Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage Route, in Bethlehem, Palestine, from the List of World Heritage sites in Danger.
The UNESCO’s Committee, which has been meeting in Baku since 30 June, said the decision was due to the high quality of work carried out in the Nativity Church, the restoration of its roof, exterior facades, mosaics and doors.
This also includes Latin, Greek Orthodox, Franciscan and Armenian convents and churches, as well as the bell towers and terraced gardens.
Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2012, the site was added simultaneously to the List of World Heritage in Danger due to the poor state of the Church.
**Contributions
And today, we say thank you to Cairo, as Egypt has paid its budget dues in full. So far, 106 have paid.
**Questions and Answers
Khalas. Yes, sir?
Question: Thank you, Steph. What is the Secretary‑General saying about the trashing of [inaudible] building [inaudible]?
Spokesman: I think we addressed that issue yesterday, and I have nothing else to add. Yes, sir?
Question: I was just wondering if… given that the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] has now confirmed that Iran and enriched uranium is above the agreed limits, has the Secretary‑General or anyone else in the building had any talks with the Iranian officials or… or Member States in the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] over the past 24 hours or so?
Spokesman: Not at senior‑most level as far as I'm aware. I mean, contacts are… regular contacts continue to be had. The IAEA is very much in the lead on dealing with the issue of uranium and verification. For the Secretary‑General, he continues to feel that everything should be done by all parties to preserve the JCPOA. Linda. Then Evelyn.
Question: Thank you, Steph. When the SG says he feels that all things should be done by all parties to the JCPOA, is he also referring to the US?
Spokesman: He would refer to all parties who were signatories at one time or another to the JCPOA. Evelyn?
Question: Thank you, Steph. On Syria, is there any… with all the aid that these people require, according to your description, is there any problem with access?
Spokesman: Yes, there's a problem with access. We're trying to deliver aid in what is an active conflict zone. So, not only continuing bombardments, artillery firing makes it a challenge and, obviously, the landscape on the ground is also complicated, access… we are not getting access to all the people that we need to have access to. Celia?
Question: Thank you, Stéphane. Coming back to Iran, [Javad] Zarif said that the measures they have taken are reversible, explaining that they can reduce the amount of uranium that they're producing. How can that… and they said that the reason they… they will be able to do it if they can get a guarantee on the sanctions and as long as the European Union cannot guarantee that the sanctions are not affecting them, that's not going to happen. So… and which scenario can we get to that point where… because the United States is the one putting the sanctions, and they've retired from the deal. So, how the European Union could actually guarantee that they're not going to be impacting the sanctions to Iran?
Spokesman: I mean, you raise some very interesting and very valid questions, but I'm not… I'm neither a strategist or a policymaker for those who signed the accord. The accord was a major milestone in multilateral diplomacy. We think it serves a very important purpose, both in terms of regional stability, in terms of non‑proliferation. And we encourage the parties to work to preserve it. And, as we said yesterday, encouraged Iran to… also to implement all of its nuclear‑related commitments. Ms. Lederer?
Question: Two things, Steph. Is there any update on progress in the… completing the first phase of the Hudaydah withdrawal under the Stockholm Agreement? And, secondly, can you tell us what's happening in Libya with Mr. [Ghassan] Salamé trying to get an end to this conflict?
Spokesman: I'll answer your second question with your question itself, if I may be a bit Talmudic here. He is… Mr. Salamé is continuing his contacts within Libya. He's been travelling to various places outside of Libya to try to bring the parties that are actually doing the fighting and those who have an influence over doing the fighting to stop, to return to the situation as it was previously. We are on the ground. Our humanitarian colleagues are working to verify the actual humanitarian impact on people of the latest engagement around Gharyan, just south of Tripoli, as well as the status of the number of… I think we talked about 29 refugees and migrants who were held in a centre. We're trying to find out what their situation is. Because of the ongoing fighting, it becomes very difficult for us to access, to get information, much like I was saying to Evelyn. I mean, the situation for the civilians in the town of Gharyan have deteriorated due to the fighting, to the encirclement. I mean, I think we've been updating you regularly on the number of displaced people. I mean, the Libyan people have suffered for quite some time. So, we are trying to do whatever we can on a humanitarian end, and Mr. Salamé is trying to work on the political end to see a stop to the fighting.
On your question about Hudaydah, it's… we continue to urge the parties to redouble their efforts to implement the Stockholm Agreement, including Hudaydah. We have seen, not specifically on Hudaydah but in general in this conflict, recent drone attacks on civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. We have expressed multiple times our concern over this escalation of violence, and it bears reminding that attacks on civilians, civilian infrastructure, wherever they are committed, are unacceptable violations of international humanitarian law, and we condemn them. And, again, we've said this multiple times -— we'll continue to say it, that we call for all the parties to exercise maximum restraint and to avoid any escalations into… for an already volatile situation.
Have a good day. Is today Wednesday?
Correspondent: No.
Spokesman: No. So we shall see each other tomorrow. I was going to have… all right.