HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY MARIE OKABE
DEPUTY SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Thursday, June 22, 2006
ANNAN HOLDS “VERY USEFUL” DISCUSSION WITH IRANIAN FOREIGN
MINISTER
Secretary-General Kofi Annan
met in Geneva today with e Foreign Minister
Manouchehr Motaki of Iran and, in
a press conference
afterward, he said that their discussion was “very useful”.
He said he believes that Iran is
considering the offer made by the permanent members of the Security Council
and Germany “very seriously”, and added that he hopes it will give a
sufficient answer before too long. He added, in response to a question, that
he expects Iran to provide an answer after the Group of Eight’s meeting in St.
Petersburg, Russia.
The Secretary-General was also asked
about the recent situation in Timor-Leste, and said that what has happened is
“a great disappointment for all of us”. He said that his Special Envoy, Ian
Martin, will go back to Timor-Leste to hold discussions with the authorities
and assess what the United Nations can do further to help the country, adding
that he foresees a strengthened UN Mission there in the future.
The Secretary-General is now on his
way back to New York.
ANNAN HOPES
SUDAN WILL ACCEPT A UN FORCE IN DARFUR
The Secretary-General, in the Geneva
press conference,
addressed the situation in Darfur,
Sudan. In the medium term, he added, he believes
that a UN peacekeeping force will be needed to help the parties implement the
peace agreement and help provide security for the internally displaced.
He responded to recent concerns
expressed by the Government of Sudan, saying that “no one, and least of all
the UN, is interested in imposing anything like a colonial rule on one of its
Member States”. The talks continue with the Sudanese Government, he said,
adding, “I hope ultimately we will be able to convince them to accept a UN
force.”
He also urged Governments to give
generously at the pledging conference next month in Brussels, so that African
Union troops can carry out their mandate in Darfur.
Meanwhile, on the ground in Sudan, the
joint UN-African Union technical assessment mission is wrapping up its visit
there.Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno
– who led the UN delegation on the mission – held a press conference in which
he was expected to talk about what the assessment mission did, as well as
misunderstandings of the nature of UN peacekeeping operations.
He was also expected to stress that
the United Nations did not have any agenda other
than to help bring peace and stability to Sudan.
Guéhenno will be back at UN
headquarters on Monday, and will be giving the Security Council an oral
briefing sometime in the first half of next week.
Further to that, the
Security Council resolution which called for the deployment of the mission
requested that the Secretary-General submit recommendations to the Council
within one week of the mission’s return, on all relevant aspects of the
mandate of a UN operation in Darfur. That report is in the process of being
finalized.
SECURITY COUNCIL RECOMMENDS MONTENEGRO BE ADMITTED
AS 192ND MEMBER STATE OF THE UNITED NATIONS
The Security Council this morning
adopted, without a vote, a resolution recommending to the General Assembly
that the Republic of Montenegro be admitted to membership of the United
Nations.
That
decision
will now be conveyed to the Secretary-General for transmittal to the General
Assembly’s 60th session, which is expected to take it up next Wednesday.
After that, the Security
Council, chaired by the Foreign Minister of Denmark, began
an open debate
on strengthening international law. UN Legal Counsel Nicolas Michel and
Judge Rosalyn Higgins, President of the International Court of Justice,
participated in that debate.
Michel said that the Security Council
has taken a number of decisions in recent years to deal with impunity for
crimes, including its recent decision to transfer the trial of former Liberian
President Charles Taylor. He said that justice and peace are to be regarded as
complementary, noting that those two goals should be dovetailed, without
justice being sacrificed.
ANNAN
WELCOMES DANISH AND JAPANESE OFFERS
OF SUPPORT TO U.N. OFFICES IN IRAQ
A
statement issued
yesterday afternoon expressed the Secretary-General’s great appreciation of
Denmark’s recent announcement that it will provide a dedicated fixed-wing
aircraft for United Nations operations in Iraq.
The Secretary-General also welcomes
the recent offer by the Government of Japan to provide airlift support. He
looks forward to seeing these arrangements finalized and implemented as soon
as possible. These contributions will significantly improve UN mobility and
support to its offices in Iraq.
Also, available today is a letter,
transmitted by the Secretary-General to the Security Council, from Jean-Pierre
Halbwachs, our representative on the International Advisory and Monitoring
Board (IAMB) for Iraq, which provides an
update of the Board’s recent work.
PEACE-BUILDING
COMMISSION TO MEET TOMORROW
The Secretary-General will tomorrow
chair the first meeting of the Organizational Committee for the newly-created
Peacebuilding Commission.
It is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. in the Economic and Social Council
Chamber.
At that meeting, the 31-member
Committee is expected to adopt its agenda and provisional rules
of procedure and to agree on the first post-conflict country situations that
it will consider.
Available today is a letter from the
President of the Security Council to the Peace Building Commission
Organizational Committee saying that the Council would like to request the
advice of the Commission on the situations in Burundi and Sierra Leone.
The Secretary-General will open the
first session of the Commission and open the first meeting of the
organizational committee.
OTHER
ANNOUNCEMENTS
PROTOCOL TO ENHANCE ANTI-TORTURE
TREATY COMES INTO FORCE:
High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour
welcomed today’s entry into force of the Convention against Torture’s
Optional Protocol. The Protocol strengthens the treaty by establishing an
international subcommittee that can visit detention centers in States parties.
It also requires States parties to set up national torture preventive
mechanisms. So far, twenty countries have signed on to the Protocol.
ANGOLAN FOOTBALL STARS PROMOTE
IMMUNIZATION DRIVE: UNICEF and the World Health
Organization are
helping the Angolan Government launch an immunization campaign to fight
measles and polio. For their part, Angolan star football players Fabrice Akwa,
Pedro Manuel Mantorras, Antonio Lebo Lebo and Joao Jamba are taking to the
airwaves to encourage their countrymen to participate in the immunization drive.
The nationwide campaign will be held between 5 and 26 July and will immunize
more than 3.6 million children under five.
*** The guest at the noon briefing
was Judge Rudiger Wolfrum, President of the
International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea.
Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
United Nations, S-378
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7162
Fax. 212-963-7055
