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NZUN: UN Security Council Syria statement

NZUN: UN Security Council Syria statement

UN Security Council: Syria – Explanation of Vote
As delivered by Gerard van Bohemen, Permanent Representative of New Zealand
5 December 2016, New York


New Zealand is bitterly disappointed that the Security Council was not able to come together today.

The resolution that was put forward by Egypt, Spain and New Zealand represented only a small step - in our view, the minimum required for a credible response from this Council to address the situation in Aleppo and the rest of Syria.

It was a humanitarian resolution, designed to reduce the fighting and get the aid to those civilians who most desperately need it.

As is well known, New Zealand has been working towards such an outcome for many months.

The Council’s failure to act, despite the graphic monthly briefings and increasingly urgent pleas from Staffan de Mistura, Stephen O’Brien and others, is deeply damaging to the Council’s reputation and catastrophic for the people of Syria.

As I said last week, our objectives in tabling this resolution are those that have guided our engagement on Syria since joining the Council, and which led my Prime Minister to convene a high level meeting during in September: to reduce the violence; to restore the ceasefire; to allow humanitarian assistance to reach those in need; and to create space for the resumption of political talks.

Egypt, Spain and New Zealand have been working on this resolution for over a month. We consulted intensively and we took on board as many views as would allow us, we understood, to achieve consensus, while still making a practical difference for Syrian civilians on the ground.

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I would note that the delegation we engaged most intensively with and from whom we tool the greatest number of changes was the delegation of the Russian Federation.

We circulated this latest text to all council members and requested the Secretariat to put it in blue at 8PM on Friday night. That request was circulated to all Council members. It is deeply disappointing that a trivial procedural point should be advanced as a serious argument for delaying such a resolution as this against that practical background.

Today’s veto is another indictment on Russia on those that supported it and on this Council.

Today’s veto demonstrates to the world that for Moscow and Damascus our common refrain – there is no military solution to this conflict – is a hollow fiction.

For those countries it is clear that a military victory is precisely what they want and are actively pursuing, even if the cost is continued carnage inflicted on the Syrian people.

Putting aside the devastating outcome of today’s vote for this Council’s credibility, we must not lose sight of the fact that the biggest losers today are those on the ground who, instead of having a chance to restore small parts of their lives, will continue to be subjected to the bombings and blastings that have blighted their lives for so many years.

But we will not let today’s great disappointment deter us.

New Zealand will continue to work in the Security Council, in the General Assembly and elsewhere to continue to try to protect the civilians.

I thank you.

[Ends]

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