United Nations, New York, USA, August 09 2016 – Samantha Power, United States Permanent Representative to the UN, briefs journalists following a Security Council meeting on the situation in Aleppo Syria today at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Photo: Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire
Remarks by Ambassador Samantha Power at the Conclusion of a Arria Meeting on Aleppo
Thank you so much. Some of you may remember that we had an Arria session maybe two years ago in which Dr. Sahloul presented video testimony of the chlorine attacks that had been occurring throughout Syria.
And I really credit your testimony, your footage, your eyewitness reports with changing something palpable, I think, inside the Council.
Because the Council has been so blocked on Syria and so divided, I think something was required to puncture all of us out of a sense of helplessness because of our divisions. And I really hope today has a similar effect.
On chemical weapons use, we haven’t changed the world, but there has been a marked drop in chlorine attacks since the Council came together to create a Joint Investigative Mechanism.
Very disappointed to see it looks like such attacks may have resumed recently – just in the last fortnight. And we’re, of course, awaiting the report from the Joint Investigative Mechanism on the prior attacks. But that’s an example of taking something that – no matter what our differences are – something we can agree upon. And I think preventing attacks against hospitals, protecting children, evacuating the medically needy, ending sieges – I mean, these are basic principles that hopefully the Council can come together and agree upon at this time of such dire need in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria.
I do want to note, again, I think the power of this session is in the fact that there’s no deniability – we have no plausible deniability; you have come from there, you have each brought with you your personal testimonies.
No one can say that your footage, your pictures of children are propaganda images. We wish they were. But you have, I think, really moved everybody who’s had the chance to hear from you. And you’ve earned, a million times over, our eternal respect and admiration.
So, I thank you, and I’d ask everybody to give the doctors and Clarissa and those who bear witness a round applause.
Thank you.
Source: U.S. Mission to the United Nations. Photo: Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire