SecGen press conference at Elysée Palace – Press release (excerpts)

Secretary-General’s press encounter at the Elysée Palace

14 June 2005

(unofficial transcript)

Q: What did you talk about?

SG: We talked about lots of things — UN reform and the need for the international community to come together in September and take the essential decisions to adapt the United Nations to the 21st century. We also discussed the larger Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as UN Resolution 1559 regarding Lebanon and the withdrawal of the Syrian troops and the intelligence services. We discussed the Sudan and Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We talked about the need to support the fight against poverty, and we are all very encouraged by the decision taken by the European Union to set a timetable for reaching the 0.7% GDP for development, as well as last week’s decision to offer deeper and more meaningful debt relief of about $40 billion to the least developed countries.

I must say that I am very pleased with the strong support for reform given by the European Union as a whole, and the leadership shown by [French] President [Jacques] Chirac and [British] Prime Minister [Tony] Blair. On the larger Middle East, we also did discuss Iraq and the forthcoming meeting in Brussels on the 22nd of June to offer international support to the Iraqi Government and the Iraqi people.

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Q: What do we expect of the Security Council in terms of Lebanon, and has Mr. [Terje Roed-] Larsen’s mission in Damascus been a success?

SG: (In French) Well, as far as the Security Council is concerned, they have already had a report from me following the work of the Verification Team and, indeed in the months to come, I will be making a new report to the Security Council.

On the subject of Roed-Larsen, after having had talks with President Assad in Syria, he saw me here yesterday to report to me, and I have been very encouraged by what he had to say.  I remain deeply convinced that we should work with all parties involved to implement to the letter the text of the resolution 1559.

Q: Considering the very bad state of relations between Syria and Europe and the United States, do you think that this year will see the end of the Syrian regime?

SG: Let me say that relations between governments do not always follow the same rhythm. There are times when governments have very good relations with each other and there are times when there are some tensions.  And we have seen on many occasions around the world that such tensions do not necessarily lead to regime changes and, as far as the UN is concerned, for the moment, we are implementing Resolution 1559.

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