{"id":236604,"date":"2020-06-24T16:33:16","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T20:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=236604"},"modified":"2020-06-29T01:10:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T05:10:45","slug":"discussion-of-security-council-briefing-potential-quartet-meeting-annexation-24-june-daily-press-briefing-excerpts","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/discussion-of-security-council-briefing-potential-quartet-meeting-annexation-24-june-daily-press-briefing-excerpts\/","title":{"rendered":"Discussion of Security Council Briefing, Potential Quartet Meeting, Annexation \u2013 24 June Daily Press Briefing \u2013 (Excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"
24 JUNE 2020<\/strong><\/h6>\n

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Middle East<\/u><\/p>\n

As you all are well aware, the Security Council this morning held an\u00a0open videoconference<\/a>\u00a0on the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The Secretary-General took part in the meeting, noting in his\u00a0remarks<\/a>\u00a0that we are at a watershed moment.\u00a0 If implemented, the Secretary-General said, annexation by Israel would constitute a most serious violation of international law, grievously harm the prospect of a two-State solution and undercut the possibilities of a renewal of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.\u00a0 He called on the Israeli Government to abandon its annexation plan.\u00a0 He also said that he will continue to consistently speak out against any unilateral steps that would undermine peace and the chances for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through meaningful negotiations.\u00a0 Mr. Guterres also urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to commit to meaningful dialogue, with the support of the international community.<\/p>\n

Also addressing the Council today was Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.\u00a0 He asked Council members to join the Secretary-General in his call for an immediate reengagement, with no preconditions, between the Middle East Quartet and the Palestinian leadership, Israel and the countries of the region in order to find a way out of the current crisis.\u00a0 And all those texts have been shared with you.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Questions and Answers<\/u><\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 I’m a bit confused of why a meeting of the Quartet would be an answer to anything on the annexation controversy since the United States is a member of the Quartet and what\u2026\u00a0 it could stop any decisions\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 You know, obviously, a Quartet\u2026\u00a0 and what the Secretary\u2011General and Mr. Mladenov have been advocating is a meeting of not only the Quartet but also of the regional, countries in the region.\u00a0 We feel that this will provide a conducive platform for Israelis and Palestinians to talk without preconditions, but obviously, any meeting of the Quartet would need the green light of all the members of the Quartet to proceed.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Okay, Steph.\u00a0 I have two questions or\u2026\u00a0 second is a query.\u00a0 The first question, coming back to the Quartet, clearly, it’s been made clear by the Secretary\u2011General how urgent he sees the situation.\u00a0 It is pretty clear that 14\u00a0out of 15 members of the Security Council absolutely share his position.<\/p>\n

So, why, as Mr. Mladenov’s office is the coordinator for all the peace process, why does he just not order, call, a Quartet meeting with regional players and just say, we’re having it this day, and if only three of the four turn up of the Quartet, so be it?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 That’s really, you know, the Quartet functions, I think, as a unit.\u00a0 To\u2026\u00a0 let me put it this way.\u00a0 For any Quartet to function, whether political or musical, you need four, you need the four parts of the Quartet to be there.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you, St\u00e9phane.\u00a0 My first question is, do you see the SG will be taking a further step and contacting [inaudible] will be giving a phone call to Prime Minister Netanyahu or President Abbas to seed the chances for a meeting? \u00a0That’s my first question.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 The Secretary\u2011General, and especially his Special Representative, Mr.\u00a0 Mladenov, have been deeply engaged with the parties at various levels, and I think our message publicly and our message privately are completely in sync, and the Secretary\u2011General could not have been more clear today.<\/p>\n

Your second question, sir.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 The second question, yesterday, St\u00e9phane, Ahmed Mustafa Erekat, 27-year-old Palestinian, it was his sister’s wedding night.\u00a0 He went to Bethlehem to bring his sister and mother from the salon; however, the Israeli checkpoint gunned him down in cold blood.\u00a0 Are you aware of this crime? \u00a0Did it make any [inaudible] within the\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 I just saw the press report.\u00a0 I mean, we, obviously, feel that this needs to be investigated fully, and I will check with Mr. Mladenov if there’s anything else.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

For information media. Not an official record.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

24 JUNE 2020 The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General. \/… Middle East As you all are well aware, the Security Council this morning held an\u00a0open videoconference\u00a0on the Middle East. The Secretary-General took part in the meeting, noting in his\u00a0remarks\u00a0that we are at a watershed […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2573],"document-source":[2329,5352,1362,6169,1877],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2849,1905,1638],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-236604","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-highlights-of-the-noon-briefing","document-source-quartet","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-security-council","document-source-united-nations-department-of-global-communications","document-source-united-nations-special-coordinator-for-the-middle-east-peace-process-unsco","document-subject-annexation","document-subject-peace-proposals-and-efforts","document-subject-quartet","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/236604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/236604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=236604"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=236604"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=236604"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=236604"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=236604"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=236604"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=236604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}