UN / BRAHIMI

STORY: UN / BRAHIMI
TRT: 1.01
SOURCE: UNTV / UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 17 AUGUST 2012, NEW YORK CITY / FILE


SHOTLIST:

FILE – 2011, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

17 AUGUST 2012, NEW YORK

2. Wide shot, press conference
3. Med shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Eduardo Del Buey, Deputy Spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General:
“The Secretary-General appreciates Mr. Brahimi’s willingness to bring his considerable talents and experience to this crucial task for which he will need, and rightly expects, the strong, clear and unified support of the international community, including the Security Council. Diplomacy to promote a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Syria remains a top priority for the United Nations.”
5. Med shot, journalists
6. Wide shot, end of press conference

FILE – UNHCR - 2 MAY 2012, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

7. Med shot, Lakhdar Brahimi speaking at a conference on Afghan refugees
8. Med shot, delegates applauding

FILE – UNTV – 30 JUNE 2008, NEW YORK CITY

9. Various shots, Lakhdar Brahimi briefing the press at UN headquarters


STORYLINE:

Veteran diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi will be the new Joint Special Representative of the United Nations and League of Arab States for the crisis in Syria, taking over the peace-facilitation role played over the past several months by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a UN spokesperson said today (17 August).

The spokesman told reporters at a press briefing at UN headquarters in New York that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “appreciates Mr. Brahimi’s willingness to bring his considerable talents and experience to this crucial task for which he will need, and rightly expects, the strong, clear and unified support of the international community, including the Security Council”.

He thanked Kofi Annan for his “selfless efforts and contributions to the search for peace in Syria”, and added that “diplomacy to promote a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Syria remains a top priority for the United Nations”.

Lakhdar Brahimi, an Algerian national, has served the United Nations in various high-level roles over in the past two decades, including as head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), advisor on a range of issues, and chair of an independent panel on peacekeeping operations which released its keynote findings, known as the “Brahimi Report,” in 2000. As an Algerian diplomat, he also served with the League of Arab States from 1984 to 1991.

Brahimi is expected to assume his duties following the expiration of Annan’s mandate on 31 August 2012.