12 Jun 2012

UN / YEMEN RESOLUTION

Nobel peace prize winner Yemen’s Tawakkul Karmen today welcomed a Security Council resolution threatening sanctions on those parties disrupting the transitional process in the country and hoped they would reach similar agreement on Syria. UNTV

Posted at: June 12, 2012 1:45 pm

Duration: 02:33

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STORY: UN / YEMEN RESOLUTION
TRT: 2.33
SOURCE: UNTV 
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 12 JUNE 2012, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – 2011, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

12 JUNE 2012, NEW YORK

2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Various shots, Security Council voting on resolution 2051
4. Wide shot, Tawakul Karman walking up to the stakeout microphone

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

5. Cutaway, hands taking notes

12 JUNE 2012, NEW YORK

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Tawakul Karman, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate:
"It also sends a clear message to those people who deny or who trying to damage the transitional period in Yemen that they will face the international community. The international community give them a clear message: Your time is over, and let Yemen people to build their country, to be democracy, to be a great and strong country."

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

7. Cutaway, hands taking notes

12 JUNE 2012, NEW YORK

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Tawakul Karman, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate:
"We hope that the international community, the Security Council to have the same agreement in the Syrian cases; they have to be with their hopes and their dreams to be democracy and to change their authority, to change Bashir Assad."

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

9. Cutaway, hands taking notes

12 JUNE 2012, NEW YORK

10. Various shots, Tawakul Karman leaving the stakeout area and Ambassador Grant approaching the microphone

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

11. Cutaway, hands taking notes

12 JUNE 2012, NEW YORK

12. SOUNDBITE (English) Lyall Grant, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations:
"Well they should read this resolution particularly carefully. Because it makes clear that any spoilers, those who are trying to disrupt the transition, disrupt the national dialogue, disrupt the national unity government will be held accountable, and the Council expresses itself ready to adopt measures under Article 41 sanctions, which as you know includes various measures for all those who are trying to spoil the process."

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

13. Cutaway, hands taking notes

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

14. Cutaway, hands taking notes

12 JUNE 2012, NEW YORK

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Lyall Grant, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations:
"Certainly we are discussing with our key allies and partners in the Security Council whether and how a political transition can take place in Syria. But there are differences between the two situations. In Yemen, President Hadi – sorry, President Saleh accepted the transition, and he was willing to step down and not compete in the presidential elections that were held in Yemen. That is not yet the situation in Syria."

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

16. Cutaway, hands taking notes

12 JUNE 2012, NEW YORK

17. Wide shot, Ambassador Grant leaving stakeout area

STORYLINE:

Welcoming the Security Council resolution adopted today (12 June) on Yemen, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tawakul Karman urged the UN body to come to similar agreement on Syria.

The Security Council this morning unanimously adopted resolution 2051, expressing its readiness "to consider further measures," including under Article 41 of the UN Charter, if actions such as attacks on oil, gas and electricity infrastructure continue, as well as interference with the decisions relating to the restructuring of the armed and security forces and obstruction of decrees on military and civilian appointments.

Karman, a 33-year-old Yemeni activist who last year became the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, spoke to reporters this morning outside Security Council chambers in New York.

She said she was pleased that the resolution would help end impunity and that it sent a clear message to those trying to hinder the transitional process in Yemen that "your time is over".

Asked about Syria, she said she hoped that the international community and the Security Council would "have the same agreement in the Syrian cases; they have to be with their hopes and their dreams to be democracy and to change their authority, to change Bashir Assad."

British Ambassador Lyall Grant also spoke at the media stakeout.

Asked about the activities of members of Yemen's previous government, he said they should "read this resolution particularly carefully" and warned that any spoilers who were trying to disrupt the transition, national dialogue, or the national unity government would be held accountable and could face sanctions under Article 41 of the UN Charter.

Article 41 falls under Chapter VII of the Charter, and deals with threats to peace, breaches of peace and acts of aggression. It states that the Council may decide what measures – not involving the use of armed force – are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call on Member States to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.

In response to questions on the Security Council discussions on Syria and parallels between the situation in the two countries, Grant allowed that there had been "a lot of talk of a Yemen solution" to the crisis in Syria.

He said the United Kingdom was discussing with its "key allies and partners in the Security Council whether and how a political transition can take place in Syria". But he also pointed to differences between the two situations, noting that Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh had accepted the transition and had been willing to step down. "That is not yet the situation in Syria", he said.

Yemen has been undergoing a democratic transition, under the leadership of President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi Mansour, who came to power in February's election. This followed an agreement signed by warring factions in November 2011 on a transitional settlement in the wake of widespread protests similar to those seen across the Middle East and North Africa, and the resignation of former president Saleh.

An important element of the transition is the all-inclusive dialogue, scheduled to take place later this year, and whose outcome will feed into the constitution-making process that is to conclude in late 2013, enabling general elections to take place in February 2014.