YouSaid · the spoken record

Obrien

lines on the record: 875
first: 2010-06-29
most recent: 2017-08-30
sittings or episodes: 46
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“That number includes approximately 13,500 people 60 to 70 per cent of whom are women and children in a collective centre and cotton factory in Jibreen, a Government-held area to the east of eastern Aleppo city; 500 with family members in western Aleppo; 8,500 in collective shelters in Sheikh Maqsoud, a Kurdish enclave north of eastern Aleppo city; as well as tens of thousands displaced within eastern Aleppo itself. As the fighting continues unabated, the situation is fluid and those statistics are indeed changing by the hour and the day. It is likely that thousands more will flee should fighting further spread and intensify over the coming days.”
2016-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7822 (2016) · source
“Just today, we received a report that scores of people were killed in a single air strike this morning. It is estimated that up to 25,000 people have been displaced from their homes in eastern Aleppo since Saturday. That is the estimate that Staffan de Mistura has just given, and I do not have any further information other than that which were able to get at approximately the same time yesterday. We will keep the Council updated.”
2016-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7822 (2016) · source
“There is constant bombing and shelling in plain sight, occurring night and day - day in and day out. The noose of the siege has tightened, and those civilians trapped are in desperate conditions. Those attacks have not been limited to eastern Aleppo but have also killed and injured civilians in western Aleppo and damaged civilian infrastructure. As the Council has heard me say before, Aleppo has become the apex of what has become a catalogue of horrors in Syria. Its people have been living in a long terrifying nightmare-reality that no human being should have to endure. The intensity of attacks on eastern Aleppo neighbourhoods over the past few days has forced thousands of civilians to flee to other parts of the city. In the past four days, numerous civilians have reportedly been killed.”
2016-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7822 (2016) · source
“The rules ofwar - sacrosanct notions born out of generations of costly and painful lessons and established more than 150 years ago, in 1864 to be precise, in the First Geneva Convention - have been systematically disregarded in Syria. Nowhere has the cruelty of this war been more grimly witnessed than in Aleppo. Aleppo, one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities and Syria's manufacturing capital, has been recklessly destroyed over the course of the past five years. We have all seen the harrowing images of bombs and mortars raining down in recent days, weeks and months on civilian areas, residential houses, schools, medical facilities, water and electric stations, and public markets. There are constant, tormenting images of people murdered, bloody, and exhausted.”
2016-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7822 (2016) · source
“We have pleaded that the Security Council and the international community come together to ensure that both civilians and civilian infrastructure are protected in accordance with basic humanitarian and international obligations, that access be granted to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance and that all efforts be made to reach a political solution to the conflict. Our calls, and the requests, even the demands, of the Council have largely gone ignored. The parties to the conflict in Syria have shown, time and again, that they are willing to take any action or do any deed to secure military advantage, even if it means killing, maiming or besieging civilians into submission in the process. There are no limits or red lines left to cross.”
2016-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7822 (2016) · source
“Mr. O'Brien: Iamjoining the Security Council from the offices of the International Maritime Organization in London, and I would like to thank Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura for his briefing, whose contents coincide with those contained in our presentation to the European Parliament yesterday. For over five years now, the United Nations and the entire humanitarian community have raised the alarm about the devastating impact of the conflict in Syria on millions of ordinary men, women and children.”
2016-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7822 (2016) · source
“And we look to the Council to address the underlying driver of Palestine's protection crisis through a political resolve to end the occupation, which is now approaching its fiftieth anniversary.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“If it would help the members of the Council to have a specific list of humanitarian relief actions that should be taken or avoided, I and my colleagues will be pleased to provide it. However, those actions notwithstanding, the principles of international humanitarian law do and must must apply. That includes all members of the Council, all those in the occupied Palestinian territory, both Israelis and Palestinians, and all who have signed international legal obligations to which they are, and must be held, accountable. We look to the Council to ensure greater respect for obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law and to enhance the protection of civilians. We look to the Council to safeguard the operational space that aid workers require to provide assistance to those most in need.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“They are bound by customary international law as well, as are all countries. The members of the Security Council have a vital role to play in motivating the parties to respect their obligations, Similarly, all parties to the Geneva Conventions have an obligation not only to respect them but also to ensure that others respect them. The challenges facing Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory, and the challenges that humanitarian personnel face in trying to assist them, require action not only by the Israeli and Palestinian authorities but by every member of the Council. If we want to prevent further deterioration in a region already overwhelmed with humanitarian emergencies, the Council's decisive collective action is vital.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“The continued lack of a resolution to the core drivers of the ongoing humanitarian crisis has left Palestinians stuck in a perpetual cycle of humanitarian relief, increasingly dependent on assistance and facing an ongoing lack of respect for their rights and heightened instability. We need a coherent international response that will enhance the protection of civilians and deliver accountability for violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. That is especially important in the absence of an active political process between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Israel, the main duty-bearer, is a signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention and has clear obligations as an occupying Power, and both Israel and Palestine have ratified the major human rights treaties.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“They need and deserve our unequivocal support to resist those coercive pressures by the occupying Power, and must not be burdened by still more pressures from Palestinian leaders, some of Whom appear to view those communities as a key battleground in Palestine's long struggle. Those vulnerable civilians have no place as instruments in a political strategy. Ireiterate the Secretary-General's call to Israel to end the policies and practices that place those Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer. I also remind the Palestinian authorities of the need to respect the principles of independence, impartiality, neutrality and humanity, which are the bedrock of the humanitarian imperative.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“More fundamentally, Palestinians in Area C are living in an increasingly coercive environment that is created by discriminatory planning policies, demolitions, the active promotion of plans to relocate Bedouin to new townships and other practices that generate miserable living conditions and create pressure on people to move elsewhere. Much of that occurs in the line of sight of new or expanding Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law, as reiterated by successive resolutions by the Council. About a quarter of the structures targeted this year were in Palestinian Bedouin communities located within or near the area allocated to the E-l settlement expansion project on the outskirts of occupied East Jerusalem. It is critical that the interests of those vulnerable Bedouin communities be placed first.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“As I have reported to the Council before, the pace of demolitions and confiscations of Palestinian property by the Israeli authorities has far exceeded any previous years on record - more than double this year as compared to 2015. Those have occurred mainly within herding communities in Area C, which count among Palestine's most vulnerable households. Obstruction to our operations in those areas is occurring in the most egregious way, with our relief items themselves frequently demolished or confiscated by Israeli forces. The rate of demolition or seizure of such donor-funded relief is on a trajectory to potentially triple as compared to 2015. Affected relief items include shelters and tents, water cisterns, animal pens and other basic structures for survival and livelihoods.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“Until that happens, Israel must ensure that items needed for reconstruction, relief and emergency preparedness are allowed entry, and that aid workers are able to move about to do their vital work. While it is not a substitute for the opening of access to Israel, we also look to Egypt, in line with its own security considerations, to maintain the welcome increase in openings at the Rafah Border Crossing, which remains, literally, a life line for some. We must also see greater action from Palestinian leaders in Ramallah and Gaza; internal differences must be resolved for the sake of Palestine's most vulnerable constituents. In the occupied West Bank, as the pressures increase on communities in Area C, so too do the obstacles to our operations there as well.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“NGOs need to resist those pressures and navigate anti-terrorist legislation set up by many Member States, which generate their own restrictions on the type of programming that is allowed and with whom one can and cannot engage. The ongoing internal divisions between the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and those in Gaza also inevitably transfer an increasing burden onto humanitarian actors and humanitarian budgets, as unstaffed operating theatres, dilapidated equipment and breaks in fuel supplies take their toll on people and services. Ultimately, real progress in Gaza requires a full lifting of the blockade by Israel, in line with the resolutions of the Council and the General Assembly.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“No explanation other than "security" is cited, leaving us at a loss as to how to respond and with a growing morale problem. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), embassies and others are experiencing similar trends. Those new access restrictions are hitting other Gaza residents hard as well, of course; over half of the 2,000 permit applications by patients seeking urgent medical treatment outside Gaza in October, most typically for cancer treatment, were not approved by Israel. Inside Gaza, the operating space for NGOs is also difficult. The de facto authorities, Hamas, regularly seek to do audits, review staff or beneficiary lists or introduce new permit requirements and restrictions on work in certain areas of the Strip.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“Urgent projects, which aim to reduce the risk of flooding that threatens nearly 500,000 people as winter approaches, have been on hold for 10 months as they await clearance of equipment. Projects to rehabilitate water wells and the construction of a neonatal intensive care unit are other examples of urgent needs suffering unnecessary long delays. Aid workers have also been caught up in the increased restrictions. United Nations staff in Gaza require a permit to leave Gaza in order to meet with their managers in Jerusalem or Ramallah, or to attend training programmes elsewhere. While those permits were relatively easy to receive in previous years, when never more than 10 per cent were typically rejected, last month more than half of our United Nations applicants were turned away, with some advised not to apply again for 12 months.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“Israel bans or restricts the import of certain goods into Gaza, on the grounds that they have a dual military and civilian purpose. Affected items range from communications equipment to cement, wood and even water pumps, fire trucks and medical X-ray machines. Mr. Mladenov has already spoken about the growing and dramatic gap between how much material Israel is permitting to be imported to Gaza through the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, and the growing waiting lists of beneficiaries. That translates very directly into the humanitarian realm, with 60,000 highly vulnerable, displaced persons in Gaza still waiting for their home sto be rebuilt, who need rental assistance and much more in the interim. It is not just about concrete.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“Mr. O'Brien: I thank my colleague Mr. Nickolay Mladenov for his authoritative and comprehensive briefing, and I shall complement his remarks on the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory. Last month, I also provided an overview of the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory (see S/PV.7792). Today, I will focus my remarks on the increasing challenges humanitarian actors are facing in responding to the needs of those vulnerable Palestinians, and for which we need greater support from the Council. In the occupied Gaza Strip, 70 per cent of the population currently receives some form of international assistance, mostly food aid. Yet our ability to deliver that assistance has become increasingly restricted.”
2016-11-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7820 (2016) · source
“The United Nations humanitarians and our partners will continue to do our part. The United Nations will push at all angles to reach those in need. As is myjob, I will report the facts, advocate and give voice to those suffering without respite and whose lives have been shattered time and again. I will do so until the Council decides to unite once again to do its collective part and resolve to bring this Syrian horror to an end. I hear the argument that the Council should not pass a resolution because it would be "premature". It is never, never too premature to save a life. It is never too soon for the Council to find a solution to this conflict and end the suffering of the Syrian people.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“In Syria - contrary to international humanitarian law and in blatant rejection and defiance of the resolutions of the Council - death, deprivation, violence, starvation, siege tactics and attacks on civilian-populated areas and civilian infrastructure continue and they continue without penalty to the perpetrators. I have called over and over for strong action from the Council to back up its resolutions and to take action when they are ignored day in day out. Without such backing, words and resolutions have proven to have little meaning for Syrians. Without strong backing from each Council member, red lines will be crossed again and again; international humanitarian law will be trampled on; war crimes will be committed. And until there is action by the Council, there will be no accountability. It is high time to act.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“This is neither a long nor an exceptional list. More importantly, this is a list of neither unreasonable nor unattainable demands. These are the basic elements of how parties to a conflict must operate under international humanitarian law. They are based on the most basic concepts of universal decency and humanity as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations to which the Member States that are parties and proxies have signed up and international humanitarian law, which applies to all parties, States and non-State actors alike, except, it would seem, in Syria.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“It is worth, for the record and at the risk of being accused again of preaching, reiterating what the Council demanded of all the parties nearly three years ago in resolution 2139 (2014), including, first, to immediately put an end to all forms of violence; second, to immediately cease all attacks against civilians, as well as the indiscriminate employment of weapons in populated areas; third, to immediately lift sieges in populated areas; fourth, to promptly allow rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access for United Nations humanitarian agencies and their implementing partners, including across conflict lines; fifth, to respect the principle of medical neutrality and facilitate free passage to all areas for medical personnel, equipment, transport and supplies, including surgical items; sixth, to protect civilians and desist from attacks directed against civilian objects; and seventh the immediate end of the practices of arbitrary detention and torture of civilians.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“There are people here at this table and beyond with the influence to tell the Syrian Government we are not prepared to take no for an answer. If you are a petrified civilian patient in Aleppo tonight, you do not need to hear your own Government pray national sovereignty in aid to justify using that sovereignty to bomb its own people and that patient. I am mandated to report to the Security Council every month on the implementation of Council resolutions relating to the protection of civilians and the humanitarian situation in Syria.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“I have had little positive to report on the implementation of the resolutions of the Council as regards the humanitarian situation in Syria. Air strikes and shelling kill and injure more and more civilians, and protected civilian infrastructure is destroyed with implications that will resonate for years to come. Besiegement is increasing, people are going hungry. Schools and hospitals are being bombed. The United Nations is increasingly blocked from delivering to those most in need. Most frustratingly, this human suffering is all unnecessary. There is no amount of suffering that will result in an end to the conflict. There is no amount of military operations that will see an end to the conflict. The only solution, as has been said countless times before, is a political solution.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“Syrians have also been impacted by a series of anti-Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) operations. This has resulted in initial displacement of 8,000 people in the north of Raqqah governorate. We are foreseeing the need to support over 400,000 people as operations progress further. In Al-Bab, anti-ISIL operations are taking place just a kilometre outside the city, and planning for a more immediate response for the over 100,000 people estimated to be in the city and surrounding area is in its final stages. Let me be clear - when people need our support, we are working and will continue to work day and night to try to reach them no matter who or where they are. That is not being virtuous; that is ourjob, providing the Council gives us the funds to do it and we can get safe access.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“An earlier third convoy to Harbnafseh, in Rural Hama, scheduled for 1 November, was blocked by pro-Government armed elements while under way and also forced to turn back. Just yesterday, on 20 November, an inter-agency convoy to Rastan in northern rural Horns could not proceed owing to delays at the checkpoint in terms of approval to proceed, as well as shelling in the area once approval had finally been received. As a result, as I said earlier, no inter-agency cross-line convoys have been able to deliver aid yet this month. We have now gone four months without delivering aid to anyone via an inter-agency cross-line convoy before 19 November. The result is that we are once again unlikely to reach more than a small portion of those whom we do receive formal approval to access.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“We have dealt with late approvals, approvals with restrictions on the number of beneficiaries, delays in clearing trucks at the warehouse, negotiations over routes, medical supplies removed or not approved, and additional clearances beyond the agreed two-step process. So far this month, we have three times navigated these hurdles, three times deployed convoys to reach those who are in need. Two of these convoys, both to Wadi Barada on 9 November and en route, in Rural Damascus, to Duma on 17 November, reached the final Government of Syria checkpoint before being forced to turn back when Syrian security forces, believed to be the Syrian Republican Guard, demanded the cleared containers be opened and searched. This is in clear breach of agreed protocol and a possible security threat for our convoys and aid workers.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“Unfortunately, I must report to the Council that, since the last reporting period, none - not one - of our inter-agency convoys was able to deliver aid across lines. Cross-line access requires detailed access negotiations with all sides to ensure security and allow aid to be delivered. Though our main interlocutor is, of course, the Syrian Government, we also work with the other parties to the conflict and the Member States that have influence over them - through the Humanitarian Task Force as well as bilaterally - but our efforts are increasingly met with delays, blockages and rejections. Every month we encounter new bureaucratic challenges that need to be navigated.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“At the berm along the Syrian-Jordanian border, which I visited in early September, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners have worked ceaselessly, together with the Jordanian authorities, to ensure the resumption of sustained aid operations to the many tens of thousands of women, men and children amassed at the border and in need of urgent lifesaving assistance. I am pleased to announce today that security and other arrangements have been finalized, and aid operations are set to commence tomorrow. I pay tribute to the cooperation I have personally had with the Jordanian State at the most senior levels to help enable the delivery of humanitarian assistance in the most challenging circumstances.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“Our efforts complement the critical role played by international and Syrian non-governmental organizations who provide assistance and services to millions more from neighbouring countries. We also continue to reach people via air. Since operations started several months ago, the World Food Programme has completed 153 airdrop rotations, dispatching 2,815 metric tons of food, nutrition, health and water, sanitation and hygiene supplies over Deir ez-Zor city. The United Nations has also completed 159 airlifts to Qamishli, delivering 5,660 metric tons of food, water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, nutrition, education, shelter and non-food-item assistance on behalf of humanitarian actors, including 61,500 full food rations.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“That assistance is delivered through regular programming and cross-line activities from Damascus, and cross-border assistance from Turkey and Jordan. Let me touch briefly on cross-border activities, which have become a vital part of the response. Since cross-border operations began over two years ago, the United Nations has conducted 420 cross- border convoys, or nearly four a week on average, delivering health assistance sufficient for 9 million people, including vaccinations for 2 million people; food for 3 million people, many on a monthly basis; non-food items for almost 3 million people; and water, sanitation and hygiene supplies for over 2.5 million people. Assistance has been delivered to various parts of Aleppo, Idlib, Latakiya and Hama governorates from Turkey, and Dar'a and Al-Quneitra governorates from Jordan.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“From 1 November to 18 November, 13 attacks were verified, and there are reports of many more attacks. Hospitals, health centres, blood banks and ambulances have all been hit. The fact is, since resolution 2286 (2016) was adopted on 3 May, over 130 attacks on medical facilities have been documented. The Syrian war has already killed more than 750 medical personnel. It is a disgusting and blatant disregard for the special protected status of health-care facilities under international humanitarian law and a clear spit in the face of the Council's resolution, as my World Health Organization colleague will expand on after my briefing. Despite the challenges and hardships, the United Nations and our partners continue regularly to reach nearly 6 million Syrians in need across the country per month.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“Death, a dead body, warm to cold blood - however hard anyone may try, death is an undeniable fact and there is always a cause of death. Let us imagine the terror of those children; imagine those who may have survived the first strike, some hysterical, some frozen in fear, only to see another round coming in. This year, UNICEF has documented 84 attacks on schools, killing at least 69 children and injuring many more. And what of those who survived such attacks - those children who dream of becoming doctors? To become a health-care worker in Syria is to take on a dangerous profession and to even go to a medical facility is to risk one's life. The Council adopted resolution 2286 (2016), protecting health-care professionals and facilities, but that has resulted in scant protection to those in Syria.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“They are senseless, unconscionable acts with no purpose other than to punish civilians, including women, children and the infirm, and deny those left behind the means to survive or rebuild. Millions of Syrian children have had their childhoods ripped away by calculated and reckless attacks on schools. In the last two weeks of October alone, the lives and dreams of 30 children were stolen during attacks on five schools. On 26 October, the very day of my most recent briefing when denials were screeching through the air, 22 children and six of their teachers were killed, when their school compound was repeatedly attacked in Hass, Idlib governorate. But the facts are that the children and their teachers are dead.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“The real question is - how can we prevent now nearly 1 million people from being subject to a cruel form of collective punishment that gets more severe and intense, month after month, across the country? If the Council cannot come together to bring an end to sieges, then it and we must all ask ourselves why we are having this meeting here this morning. Attacks on civilian infrastructure, most notably hospitals and schools, have become so commonplace, it takes one's breath away. Such attacks are violations of international humanitarian law. Some have been called out as war crimes by the Secretary-General, including again yesterday and the High Commissioner for Human Rights has indicated that some may even amount to crimes against humanity.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“It is a deliberate tactic of cruelty to compound the people's suffering for political, military and, in some cases, economic gain to destroy and defeat a civilian population, who cannot fight back, and perpetrated monstrously by the one party, above all, who should be defending and protecting its own citizens - all of them, even those who do not like and disagree with the State and its leader and his Government. Those maintaining the sieges know by now that the Council is apparently unable or unwilling to enforce its will or agree now on steps to stop them. The procedures give us crumbs; an occasional convoy here and there around the time of Council briefings, to tick the box that we are all trying our best. But the near 1 million Syrians trapped in besieged locations cannot live on crumbs.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“Yet, this past year, we have seen the opposite - a massive increase in the use of besiegement and of the overwhelming numbers of people, particularly by the Government of Syria. This time last year, the number of besieged people stood at 393,700. Six months ago, it stood at 486,700. Today, I have to report to the Council that, following a comprehensive review, we estimate that tonight a total of 974,080 people - nearly 1 million Syrians - are living under siege. New locations include Jubar in Damascus and Hajjar Al-Aswad, Khan Al-Shih and multiple areas in the enclave of eastern Ghouta in rural Damascus. There is nothing subtle or complicated about the practice of besiegement. Civilians are being isolated, starved, bombed and denied medical attention and humanitarian assistance in order to force them to submit or flee.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“In addition to no supplies getting in, those in need of medical attention are dying because they are not being allowed to leave. Since I last reported to the Council (see S/PV.7795), at least three people have died due to the denial by parties to the Four Towns Agreement to enable the evacuation of people who could have been saved but for that punitive application of the tit-for- tat approach. More will die soon in each of the four towns if that travesty is not resolved. I urge those with influence over the parties to the Agreement, notably Jaish Al-Fatah and Iran, must do all they can to see that aid is delivered immediately and that those requiring medical care are able to evacuate. I have long called for the lifting of all sieges, which have become one of the most prevalent and insidious aspects of this merciless conflict.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“I remain seriously concerned about the fate of all those living in besieged locations. Aid deliveries and medical evacuations to the towns under the Four Towns ceasefire agreement covering Zabadani, Madaya, Fu'ah and Kafraya and surrounding areas, known as the Four Towns Agreement, have been unable to deploy owing to the tit-for-tat nature of the agreement. The gruesome deaths by starvation in Madaya shocked the world in January and dragged the parties to the conflict to allow the delivery of aid. February, March and April this year all saw aid deliveries to the four towns. However, since then, the situation has deteriorated. Only one convoy has reached the four towns in over six months and that was on 25 September.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“We will continue to insist on the parties' obligations to respect international humanitarian law and human rights law and see to sustained humanitarian assistance delivered to those in eastern Aleppo and all who are in need throughout Syria. I call on all with influence - that is the phrase I am diplomatically required to use, but those around this table and beyond knows who they are - to do their part to end the senseless cycles of violence once and for all and put an end to the slaughterhouse that is Aleppo. All sides, and those with influence over them, must immediately provide the necessary guarantees for the humanitarian four-point plan to move ahead. While it defies comprehension, the citizens of eastern Aleppo are not alone in the depths of horrors being faced by civilians in Syria today.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“The 30 medical doctors left in eastern Aleppo city, exhausted from their heroic efforts and non-stop work from July continue to serve in unrelentingly traumatic circumstances. All parties have the plan, and we have been engaging in unremitting discussions to obtain their agreement to proceed. But the restart of intense fighting is a clear setback to our goal of reaching agreement and delivering to those in need. Yet we are not deterred. Despite the bombing and whatever the difficulty, we are determined to follow through. The United Nations humanitarians and our partners will not give up on the people of Aleppo.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“And I urge the Government of Syria to give the Secretary General's internal board of inquiry into the attack on the humanitarian convoy, which resulted in the death of aid workers on 19 September at Oram Al-Kubra, full access in Syria to conduct its investigations. Our teams in Damascus and Gaziantep have presented successive plans to all sides, working to ensure delivery of medical supplies and evacuation of the most urgent medical cases. We stand ready to move the moment that security guarantees by all parties are granted. The United Nations four-point plan presented last week to all parties includes critical medical evacuations and delivery of medical supplies. It includes the provision of food and other essential relief items. Finally, it includes the rotation of doctors to provide assistance to those in need.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“And to add to the humanitarian crisis, they will shortly face a harsh winter without heating or the bare essentials for life. The United Nations has employed significant and tireless efforts to deliver life-saving aid. I yield to no one in saluting the undiluted, selfless bravery of all humanitarian aid workers across the United Nations, including the international NGOs, the local NGOs, first responders and people in their communities and families. They do that time and again, if they do not fall victim themselves at the time that they venture out, even risking a cynical second follow-on air strike, shell or sniper's bullet deliberately aimed at them, searching for life and saving lives. Let us repeat - they are not a target.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“On 13 November, the last of the available food rations from the World Food Programme were distributed. Pre-positioned before United Nations access was cut off in July, rations were drawn out as long as possible, but now they are gone. Only a handful of rations from local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) remain, food in markets is scarce and prices have skyrocketed. Fuel and gas to cook food are reportedly unavailable in most neighbourhoods. That is resulting in negative coping strategies, reducing meals and restricting diets to feed children. And along with limited food and medicine, there has been growing discontent with protests against corruption and a monopoly on goods reported last week, some of which turned violent, indicating the extreme desperation of the trapped citizens.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“What has been unleashed on civilians this past week is yet another low in an unrelenting inhuman onslaught, and it is as heart-breaking as it is not inevitable. The parties to the conflict are - all of them - choosing to do this. It is civilians who pay the price. Since July, 275,000 civilians have been trapped in eastern Aleppo owing to the siege tactics placed on them by the Syrian Government and its allies. Russia and Syria have opened corridors for civilians to leave, but they are reportedly unsafe or perceived as unsafe to traverse. There have also been reports that non-State armed groups inside eastern Aleppo prevented those wishing to leave the city from doing so. Humanitarian conditions in eastern Aleppo have gone from terrible to terrifying and now barely survivable by human beings.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“In parallel, more than 350 mortars and rockets have been reportedly launched by non-State armed groups indiscriminately into western Aleppo since 1 November, killing over 60 people, including women and children, and injuring more than 350 others. Over the weekend, an attack on a school in the Al-Furqan district in western Aleppo with mortar shells and rocket projectiles by non-State armed groups reportedly killed eight children and injured several others, while the local university was also hit. Overall, some 25,000 people have been displaced in western Aleppo in the last few weeks as a result of shelling by non-State armed groups. Let me be clear. We are not just seeing a resumption of violence in Aleppo. It is not business as usual.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“Over the past days, reports have indicate that hundreds of civilians have been killed, injured or otherwise affected by the relentless attacks on eastern Aleppo. Entire families were reported to have been buried under rubble in the Al-Sukkari district as first responders searched for survivors. Fires raged from incendiaries and household gas breaches in residential buildings following the attacks that stretched throughout eastern Aleppo. Deaths were reported in at least 10 neighbourhoods. As of yesterday, there are barely any functional hospitals left in eastern Aleppo able to treat those who have escaped death, as all the hospitals are being bombed into oblivion.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“Regrettably, over the past week we have seen an intense unleashing of military aggression in Aleppo and the surrounding rural area with truly devastating consequences for civilians. The pause over eastern Aleppo was shattered, thereby returning the city and its inhabitants to death and destruction once again. Reports of a high tempo of air strikes and shelling across areas of Aleppo city, held by non-State armed groups, reportedly by Syrian Government forces began again on 15 November. For the sake of accuracy and completeness, let me report here that the Russian Federation has repeatedly asserted that its air force and air strikes have resumed only in Idlib and Horns and not over eastern Aleppo. Since last Tuesday, the bombing of eastern Aleppo has not stopped.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“We last met on 26 October (see S/PV.7795), when I welcomed the then ongoing pause in air strikes from the Russian Federation and the Government of Syria, although members will recall that my welcome was not heard that day in all quarters of the Council. Daily and even weekly, the pause held over eastern Aleppo. The same was not the case for western Aleppo, as non-State armed groups launched hundreds of mortars into civilian areas in the western part of the city. Had all parties had the fortitude to cease all attacks over Aleppo, today's might have been a different briefing. But I cannot leave it at that because - one can hardly believe it - it is even worse now.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source