{"id":196339,"date":"2002-04-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T17:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=196339"},"modified":"2019-03-12T17:11:32","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T17:11:32","slug":"auto-insert-196339","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-196339\/","title":{"rendered":"Mideast crisis\/Jenin &#8211; SecGen Spokesman Press Briefing (25 April &#8211; excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:17pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><strong>HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:13pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><br \/>\n&#160;<\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><strong>BY FRED ECKHARD<br \/>\nSPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS<br \/>\nUN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK<\/p>\n<p>Thursday, April 25, 2002<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>ANNAN, FACT-FINDING TEAM TALK BEFORE UN-ISRAEL MEETING<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Secretary-General Kofi Annan and members of his staff, who will be meeting at UN headquarters this afternoon with a visiting Israeli delegation, met via teleconference with Martti Ahtisaari and members of his fact-finding team on the Jenin refugee camp. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Ahtisaari had with him Sadako Ogata and Cornelio Sommaruga, as well as his military adviser, Gen. (ret.) William Nash, and his police adviser, Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald. The new legal adviser, Tyge Lehmann, was also there, as well as support staff. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">The Israeli experts will meet at 4:00 p.m. today with a UN team headed by Kieran Prendergast, the Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs. Others on the UN side will be Legal Counsel Hans Corell, Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations H&#233;di Annabi and Military Adviser, Gen. Timothy Ford. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Meanwhile, in Geneva this afternoon, Ahtisaari and his team held further internal organizational meetings, which will continue through Friday. It was decided that Nash would be assisted by two military staff officers. More experts will be brought on board as needed. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">The team expects to be in the Middle East on Saturday. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Asked whether the United Nations expected further talks beyond today, the Spokesman said, &#8220;Our hope is that we can wrap this up quickly.&#8221; \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Asked whether the team was awaiting a &#8220;green light&#8221; to go to the Middle East, Eckhard added that the United Nations was basing its actions on what Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer told the Secretary-General earlier, that Israel expected to cooperate fully with the team. What is happening today, he said, is a clarification. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">He would not characterize Israel&#8217;s position, but noted that Peres had called the Secretary-General this morning. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Asked whether Peres had objected to Sommaruga, or other team members, the Spokesman said he did not believe the Foreign Minister mentioned objections to any individuals. He said some criticisms of Sommaruga were based on unfounded allegations going back several years, adding, &#8220;Most fair-minded people are convinced that Mr. Sommaruga is a towering humanitarian figure of impeccable reputation.&#8221; The Secretary-General has full confidence in him and is not considering any changes. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Asked about the two military staff officers assisting Nash, the Spokesman said their names have not yet been announced. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>SECURITY COUNCIL TO MEET TODAY ON MIDDLE EAST<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">On Wednesday afternoon, the Security Council held brief consultations on the Middle East, in which Syria circulated a resolution on behalf of the Arab Group. By the end of consultations, the Syrian draft was put in blue. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">The members of the Council agreed to put off a vote on the draft, preferring to wait until the Secretariat meets with the Israeli delegation this afternoon. Once those talks end, they can then move into consultations on the Middle East and receive information from the Secretariat on the result of the talks, and then take up the Syrian draft again.&#160;\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">That meeting has been scheduled for 6:00 p.m. today, with a briefing by Kieran Prendergast.\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Council President Sergey Lavrov, who earlier had relayed to Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Lancry the Council&#8217;s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/unispal.un.org\/pdfs\/EB7F3EE2978760EB85256BA50062F8C3.pdf\" style=\"color:#0000ff;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">concerns<\/a><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;about Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat&#8217;s confinement in Ramallah and on the fact-finding team, was to talk to Lancry again to underscore the urgency of the Council&#39;s concerns on those two matters. <br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">On behalf of the Council, Ambassador Lavrov was also to inform the Secretary-General that he can count on the Council&#39;s full support in his efforts to implement <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/unispal.un.org\/pdfs\/9D8245AD174F11D785256BA3004C8663.pdf\" style=\"color:#0000ff;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Resolution 1405<\/a><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[&#8230;]<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING &#160;BY FRED ECKHARD SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK Thursday, April 25, 2002&nbsp; ANNAN, FACT-FINDING TEAM TALK BEFORE UN-ISRAEL MEETING Secretary-General Kofi Annan and members of his staff, who will be meeting at UN headquarters this afternoon with a visiting Israeli delegation, met via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-196339\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[5352],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2161],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-196339","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-secretary-general","document-subject-intifadah-ii","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/196339","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\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/196339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=196339"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=196339"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=196339"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=196339"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=196339"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=196339"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=196339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}